


Acceptance

by Aziban



Category: Prey (Video Game 2017)
Genre: Aliens, Betrayal, Drama, Female Morgan Yu, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Canon, Typhon - Freeform, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22978852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aziban/pseuds/Aziban
Summary: Morgan Yu isn't who she thought she was. After battling her way through hordes of aliens on Talos I, she finds herself still in a brutal battle with the typhon, herself, and those around her. Question is, who does she side with?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to this. It's about aliens so strap in.

They flashed in my face, bright red symbols. Jittering muscles tensed, the rasp of breath exiting my mouth. Then they revealed themselves to me, blurred shapes seemingly out of reach. I lurched forward, jerking against a barrier that restricted my lungs.

“It’s finished,” my vision falling on one of the shapes, “how did it do?” That voice, that voice! Unfortunately knowing the identity of my assailant didn’t offer much relief. It was hard to be surprised though, this seemed like the kind of thing Alex would do. My own brother.

“Activation of the mirror neurons is … promising,” my hand clasped tight around a wrench that wasn't there, fingers wishing for the familiar feel of the wrench I lugged around all over Talos. Floating chunks of machinery more often than not proved bothersome; things were bad enough with a whole alien ecology roaming the station. When the haziness of confusion faded, I realized what I was looking at, four operators and a human. Every one of them speaking with a voice the struck a chord with experiences from the last few hours. First was Igwe, speaking of empathy and mirror neurons. All I could hear was his panicked gasps, as oxygen ran low in the container. I could practically still feel the seething anger from Sarah about dishonesty, and the whole aliens roaming the station thing. Danielle’s pain and loss when she realized her love would never meet her eyes again. Finally, I could feel the knives slice into my skin when I revealed what happened to her father, Mikhaila’s father.

“Would you let it live?” Alex said. “Yes,” one of the operators spoke against the waves in my mind.

“Let me show you something.” If it’s anything like Talos I, then Alex could keep it to himself. Mechanical whirring sounded from the chair that my assailants held me in. The monitor fired up, and golden strands lit up in my eyes. My arm pushed against the restraints, drawn to the monitor like a magnet. Beautiful. “This is the world today.” I froze, my skin feeling cold as the expanse of space. Not even the persistence of more whirring could bring me from unrest in my stomach. I had done everything to save the station, I did everything I could for the crew!

“What you experienced was a reconstruction based on Morgan’s memories.” Alex said. Everything was fake? My hands, they weren’t covered in soft, fleshy skin. Instead, familiar tendrils covered my body, tightly wound and glossy in a humanoid shape. I could feel them moving, like a large snake writhing around my body. Just as mesmerizing as a snake, my eyes or what I thought were eyes were locked onto those tendrils. Things that I had trained myself to kill, they were part of me. Even more than when I could use their abilities. I wanted to vomit, if I could vomit.

“I need to know if you see us. I mean really see us. Take my hand if you do.” Hopefully that wasn’t a trick question. What did he mean? Could he mean? Does he mean? Alex probably does think that. Was that the point of the simulation to find out if I could be ‘human’? Was I a pet project?

Alex’s hand twitched, a single cough echoing from him. My hand shot out, shattering the ice around me. This better not come back to bite me, and other similar thoughts occurred as Alex’s large hand gripped mine.

“We’re gonna shake things up Morgan. Just like old times.” A shiver ran through me, tendril by tendril. I’d heard those exact words right before Dr. Bellamy fell victim to a stray mimic. Yet somehow, the words were comforting. I didn’t know what I was, but I know what I experienced. A smooth covering began to encase me, tendrils fading away into light skin. The floor seemed to sway with me as I stood on my feet. Out of all the things a simulation could not prepare me for, it was the feeling of a ground beneath my feet. “One more thing, we are going to have to confine you to an area for the next few days. Nothing personal. The crew just wants to be sure.” Alex said. Great.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some time to yourself is pretty important after experiencing shocking news. Peace never lasts long though, the show must go on.

The buzzing of fluorescent lights would seem like a godsend, compared to the eerie silence of my simulated apartment. I mean when you’ve just woken up from a disaster situation simulation, you would hope things would just become normal. But they’re not, they never are. Of course, the nice thing about being in an apartment alone is you can either read something, or being left to mull things over.

In the first while of my lonesome, the conclusions finally hit me. With a big giant bat right in my head. I wasn’t Morgan Yu. I wasn’t even human. I was a typhon and human hybrid created by Alex Yu and whoever he ran this whole operation with. Combing Alex’s true intentions didn’t feel like a stretch. Even from the sim I had a strong idea of my true purpose. He could spit out that it was the bridge between us, but I knew he did it because he could. Perhaps the desperation of our situation was a catalyst, however.

Saddest thing was, my mind couldn’t stray from these thoughts. I had already exhausted every looking angle within the first hour. I ogled at a chair, and poked the various hardcover books populating my shelf. Wasn’t desperate enough to start reading them though.

People are curious by nature, or at least it appeared so. During the simulation I tore through my main objectives, only digging around in the dirt when I had to. To make sure a mimic wasn’t going to erupt from something. Further exploration meant more dangers to be exposed. But people, they always seemed to stick their nose where it never belonged. Eyes locked on me at all times. Of course, this can backfire.

No one had any reason to oppose my existence, I guess Alex just did what he did and people accepted that. That did not last long.

Time was not something I kept track of. I’m almost certain that a clock existed somewhere, but I never looked at it. Days felt like seconds, and seconds felt like days. The longer I stared, the more nothingness between my eyes and the wall revealed itself. All there was in that room was me and that wall.

“Ahh!” Something thudded against the floor. My torso twisted toward the vertical expanse of glass. Tendrils writhed beneath my skin, erupting, my view becoming compromised of the thing beyond the glass.

“What the- Security!” It spoke again.

“What’s wrong?” The thudding of boots erupted into the room.

“It- it’s looking at me.”

A neat fact about typhon, they don’t really register things like a human would. A room was just a room, regardless of how many trinkets may make it their home. I could tell when something moved, or if there was a sudden sound. But specifics were not my forte, at least not in this… experience.

It barely registered that the poor scientist would react to my gaze, not when they didn’t seem to care about their cutting stares. With my limited common sense, I figured the whole teleporting thing would startle someone. Yet forever underestimated were the power of my eyes.

“It shouldn’t be here.” The scientist who fell earlier, I had come to learn his name was Dr. James Torres. That’s where the information stopped, any other detail was beyond my best guess.

“We all agreed to the project. You knew what entailed.” How nice, my brother defended me. Could I call him my brother?

“This isn’t about the danger of the typhon – well I mean it is – but, the dishonesty. The rest should really-”

“Project Cobalt is classified Dr. _Torres_.”

“Look, you know – oh forget it! It doesn’t matter.” He said, stomping off to another room.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Alex smiled. Others must find him delirious. I may be the experiment, but even I can see the flaws in my existence. Alex didn’t see me as a typhon, but as a clone of his sibling.

No matter the doubts, Alex’s determination tore through any barrier. Turning brick walls into rubble. Access to my containment area became restricted, only a certain few in the possession of key cards. Nice. Keeping me holed away from everyone else clearly meant that I was safe. No, I wasn’t dangerous, just shy.

Torres wasn’t crazy. I’d spent the last eternity playing as a human so the human mind felt like a comfortable prison to me. But I could feel something between the tendrils, deep inside my head. What it was I didn’t know. Danger definitely posed a risk. I’m just surprised startling the poor scientist was enough to set him off.

Beyond the glass I sat, Alex on the other side. For someone so adamant that I wasn’t a monster, he sure was taking some serious security precautions. I mean who needed four different shotguns pointed at one person? Thing?

“I just want to ask you a few questions.” Alex said, _shoot._ “I know things may seem confusing right now. But I promise, they’ll all make sense. Give me a chance to explain.” Like hell he would, if I knew my brother – or creator – he wasn’t going to give me anything.

“Are you sure about this, _it_ doesn’t seem very talkative. Does it even know how to speak?” One of the scientists said, clipboard in hand.

“Give it time,” he said, “anyway. Dr. Gray will ask you some questions.” _Fire away._ Guess this meant I had to speak. I shuddered, swallowing traces of saliva in my mouth.

“Alright, err,” Dr. Gray paused, “what do we call it?” At least they weren’t calling me Morgan. I may have twenty hours as Morgan Yu, but the thought of taking on their person. ‘ _They want to live inside us, like a disease’_ comes to mind.

 _Anything is better than that._ A private thought, existing only in my mind.

Her eyes, Dr. Gray’s eyes widened, specifically at me. Her mouth was agape. Fingers twitched.

“It didn’t even- It didn’t move its mouth; how could it speak?” She said, gripping the edge of a cart.

“What do you mean, Dr. Gray? Describe what happened _now._ ”

“I heard it. It spoke to me.” My eyes shot to hers, catching them for a split second.

“What did it say?”

“Anything is better than that.” She, she repeated my thoughts … how?

“Anything is better than what?”

“It didn’t move its mouth! I heard it, I heard it right in my ears. Right in my mind. That’s what it said.” Right, almost forgot about the whole typhon thing. Morgan’s form became a comfortable form to take. Didn’t mean I was Morgan.

 _Anything is better than being called Morgan._ Or something like that.

“Ahh, telepathy. Before Dr. Gray continues humor me, is it hard to communicate like that?” Figures Alex would want to know.

 _Not really._ It had come almost naturally before.

“Alright, with that sorted out I’d like to continue, subject.” Ouch. “What do you think of your accommodations?”

_Decent. Easy to get around._

“What is your stance on humans?”

 _Well, they’ve imprisoned me in a room. Despite insisting I mean no harm._ She flinched.

“- And on Typhon?”

_All I know is that they’ve tried to kill me._

“Do we have to worry about you attacking someone? Forgive me, but you did scare Dr. Torres.” I wasn’t going to answer that. “Well alright then, that concludes this meeting then.” She said, scribbling something down, sadly stretching my neck revealed none of its secrets. “Thank you for your time.”

“Don’t worry, we’re just seeing if you can handle having free-roam of the facility.”

 _Yeah okay. Makes sense. Guess I traumatized poor Torres bad enough for them to just check up on me._ No response, I blinked. Fine line between telepathy and though, I guess.

They left me alone, as did any other scientist or security personnel. So much for the grave danger I posed. Leaning forward I hugged my knee, letting out a sigh as I crushed my lungs against my knees. Drifting once again to the barren wall to my left, my gaze locked. Life was long.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you're fresh out of an alien infested ship, even the small things make you happy. The crew getting accustomed to you, an ability to sleep, and a new name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters are gradually getting longer. So either they stop getting longer, or they eventually become 10 000 words long.
> 
> Only time will tell.

It became evident that none of it was real. That memories of tendrils and pain were far away. But that’s the thing about dreams, the longer you dream, the harder it is to wake up.

Four days. The magic number of days of quarantine the crew assigned me to. If I were to rationalize it, I would say it was for quarters of adjustment. The first day to let the shock roll over me. The second to make sure I wasn’t murderous. Finally, the last two days probably more for the crew’s adjustment. Which seemed to be coming along nicely.

Through hollow whispers I had come to the conclusion that Torres had a mental breakdown, and took it out on me. At least that is what they said, far away from the glass looking into my prison. Lips moving ever so slightly, words leaving their mouths ever so quietly. More attuned to the prey around it, tendrils unraveled around my ears, twitching as they gathered sounds. Thank goodness we didn’t get another Torres freak out, or maybe they never noticed.

For hours I sat on the floor, muscles going cold. Stretching my fingers, twisting my neck and nodding my head were the more complex forms of entertainment I had. The last crane that my neck endured lead my eyes to the clean bed with vibrant colored blankets spread over it.

Like a magnet, my hand drew ever closer. The colours shining above the rest of the dull room. Soon within my grasp was a cushy handful of the blanket. I took a sharp intake of breath, my mind escaped me. It sprinted away leaving waves of comfort. Something the sim never prepared me for.

The sim gave me simple mechanics, hard objects and soft objects. But this skin containing the ravenous tendrils was receptive in a way I didn’t expect. The blanket was soft, but it crumbled in my hand as I held it tighter. I could feel stray grains of fuzz against my fingertips. My face soon felt the caress of the blanket, hands keeping it in place. Before I knew it, the floor swayed beneath me, leading my rigid body into the warm hug of the blanket. A broad smile stretched across my face, as I inhaled armfuls of blankets. Definitely the closest I’ll get peace.

“How is it doing?” A voice in the darkness spoke. Something about the deep, prideful voice caused my nerves to spike, sticking out of my skin.

“It’s been laying there for the past couple hours. I came in and it was well … out. My best guess is that it fell asleep.” Another voice spoke, one of the scientists, I think.

“It can sleep?” My eyes shot open; the owner of the voice clear as day in my mind. Alex. Peering over my shoulder with a blanket still draped over it I could see the blurred shapes of him and the other scientist.

My hand shot up in front of my face, waving frantically. The blurriness only clearing up somewhat. Thankfully objects regained their usual sharpness, or I would have poked my eye. I sat up, my hands rubbing my face and tired eyes.

 _What happened?_ The haze of fatigue still plaguing my mind.

“You fell asleep.” The scientist said, so matter of factly.

_Asleep?_

“Mhm,” he said, nodding. “A state of unconsciousness. Surely you knew that humans slept.”

 _I wasn’t sure that I could._ The simulation never prepared me for that, except for the few times I had been knocked out. Not even those really counted though, they weren’t bodily functions that just happened.

“Something you might want to add in your notes, Alex,” the scientist said.

“Indeed. If it can sleep, then that means it gained far more than just human empathy.” The scientist said, a familiar word making me tick.

_I get that I’m not entirely a person, but why insist on calling me it?_

“Well you’ve insisted you don’t want to be called Morgan.”

“And we wouldn’t naturally,” Alex was quick to add. “Because you are not Morgan.”

_How comforting._

“Is there something you might like to be called?” Alex asked. I gave it a moment of thought, and nothing came. No thoughts materialized in my head to rescue you me from this question. Almost instinctively my hand found my chin as the ideas escaped me. I sighed. So much for getting away from the ‘it’ label.

_Not sure. I only remember random names from Talos I._

“That’s a shame. It’s truly remarkable that we’ve gotten here with project Cobalt. A typhon with an identity.” Alex rambled; I raised my head slightly, hand falling away. Staring into space it hit me, like kinetic blast from a phantom. Cobalt. Not one of my best ideas, but it wasn’t awful. Most importantly it was an idea.

 _Hey how about Cobalt. Should be easy enough to remember._ I would have patted myself on the back, if it was any kind of accomplishment to name yourself.

“Alright then, Cobalt.” The scientist said, smiling. “And you’re right, it should be easy enough to remember.” He added. I have a name now, I guess. The corners of my mouth tugged into a slight smile. Alex responding with one of his own, his eyes narrowing while glancing at his feet.

Day four. Last day of quarantine. I lifted myself from the covers, rotating my body to the floor, letting my feet get accustomed to the illusion of gravity before I set them down. The memories of waking up and having my senses escape me left a pit in my stomach, at first. My mind clung to the idea of losing myself, feeling the consciousness leave. That was until I could feel the thoughts leave, they danced around in my head right under my nose. It wasn’t until my head slammed into those fluffy pillows that they were subdued. They could dance another day.

No sunlight showered me, I was met with stagnant air and a luminescent bulb glowing red. My back became as stiff as a pole while my head turned to the alarm clock beside my bed. 2:57 A.M., no one was up. Not a soul came to stare at me. Without loitering scientists, I could see the features of the room I failed to notice.

Like a spectacle, the area outside my room was akin to a theatre. Not dissimilar to the sim within the sim, I chuckled lightly. How far could the inception go?

Lone security cameras held their mechanic eyes on me, twitching while they read me. Chairs, desks, and miscellaneous electronic equipment were all bathed in a dim red light. How nice of them to provide me with something in the dark of night, or what was supposed to be the dark of night. Everything was still nice and crisp, the swallowing darkness ignoring the countless objects in the room. Perhaps it was for sleepy scientists, navigating through black hallways. Regardless, it made the tendrils beneath my skin crawl, a familiar metallic taste coming to mind. There wasn’t much blood on Talos, but the thought of the crimson liquid was the epitome of unpleasant.

Two hallways stretched out on the sides of the room beyond my glass wall. The mysterious destinations they lead to were a mystery to me. Well at least they were somewhat a mystery, common sense told me that they were probably labs or drab offices. As for the other side of the glass wall, it was basically the room where everything began. Where the alarm clock told me it was March 15th, 2032, a Monday. Only without the computer and small office space. I probably didn’t need it.

Eventually I came to understand how boredom could be the scariest killer I have ever met. Like a predator in wait, I could sit forever, time lulling over in waves. The clock read 3:32, and mind screamed at the silence in the room. My fingers twitched, flexing in and out, tendrils occasionally poking out of their skin prison. Even when the tendrils consumed me, I still held a human shape. Opposed to the hunched over phantoms that plagued my stay on Talos I. Perhaps the sim left such an impression on me that now the tendrils were conditioned to a human shape, or they came like this. Wasn’t exactly sure which one I preferred.

My perplexing biology kept me entertained for a few moments, it was back to the drawing board. I groaned, feeling the air move across my throat as it left my mouth. But maybe hunched over with my arms draped over the floor, I could think of something to occupy myself. Watching the set of glassy eyes that belonged to the security cameras seemed fruitful, until they did the same thing again and again. Pan in one direction, then in another.

Then it spoke to me. It probed my mind, sending fire down every nerve in my body. Words weren’t used, for it couldn’t speak. But it could suggest, it could inject the ideas into my nerves and let them carry it to the place of my consciousness. So, it did. I could feel the heat sear and ignite me. Blazes consumed me as I fell to my side, the tendrils dancing. My breaths rapid and ragged. It probed my mind, jamming claws into my brain.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danielle Sho was the head of I.T. back on Talos I, and is one of the survivors of the typhon outbreak. Today we get a snapshot into her life and those that call the safehouse their home. A surprising typhon encounter may change the safe part though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to do the perspective of Danielle. Felt like it would advance the plot a little further rather than sticking with Cobalt for another chapter. We will mostly be from Cobalt's perspective though, but life in a lab isn't very exciting.

When clocks read 7:00 A.M., it was time for Danielle to get out of her warm comforting covers, and into the cold unwelcoming world. Her eyes narrowed as a small lamp dimly illuminated her cabin, empty save for a book or two.

Stop at the cafeteria, then head to work was Danielle’s very complex, but efficient routine. Making her way through vacant halls, then sitting into an office that she called home. She got to work.

Sometimes Danielle wondered what the point of her being here was. When the world went to shit it wasn’t like people needed I.T. assistance anymore. It was a miracle that this safehouse had a lot of computers, and someone had to run them.

The underground facility where they resided had many names, but no one actually knew if it had an official name. Alex was probably too busy doing something else to actually name it, then again, the name would probably be something stupid. 

Speaking of the safehouse, it was leagues away from what Talos I was like. For one thing less formality, we weren’t so much coworkers anymore, but an extremely large gang. The people aboard were still incredibly innovative which made life a little better than your typical family in a bunker. Recyclers, fabricators, operators, although more crude than their Talos I counterparts, still did their jobs.

Life was much better than what Danielle expected life in an alien apocalypse to be like. But even though it was better, it was still crap.

“Morning chief Sho.”

“Hey, Danielle.”

“Greetings chief Sho.”

It was almost sickening, how much everyone tried to forget about our invaders. Hiding it with formality and business troubles. Danielle couldn’t blame them though, who would want to think about _them_.

Strolling through bare halls, clouded by flickering lights, Danielle made her way to her office. Sitting down her ears became acquainted with the familiar squeak of her chair, getting to know it over the next few hours.

A set of footsteps wandered over to her, someone hovering around Danielle’s desk.

“Chief Sho, sorry to bother you but- “unfortunately they didn’t get the time to finish their thought. Not when everything was engulfed by shadows and her computer buzzed and whirred before inevitably faltering. _Shit,_ this had technopath written all over it with a bright red marker.

Due to her elevated standing among the crew, Danielle was one of the few people that were required to be around when electrical systems stopped working, or at least she felt like she should be. Fixing broken systems was mostly the engineers’ job, but electricity is pretty major in I.T.

“What happened? What’s going on?” Danielle demanded from security, when she eventually reached the area of the safehouses core systems. The safehouse has less core systems than Talos I, because it wasn’t a space station, but it had them.

“Machines pickin’ up typhon presence, not sure where though.”

“Is it a technopath? Or maybe even a pack of voltaic phantoms?”

“Dunno, but backup generators should keep all of our primary systems on.”

“That’s a relief.” Danielle sighed, hints of sarcasm burning on her tongue. Technopaths became the bane of everyone’s existence. Sure, a telepath could control you, but a technopath could shut down major systems. After a few choice encounters, a decision to make a lot more technologies analog ensued. Sadly, this wasn’t possible for all technologies so everyone’s activities were halted until the engineers fixed it or the creature went away. Or someone killed the damn thing outside the safehouse.

“Anything I can do?”

“Don’t think so, you’d best be headed to a bunker.”

“Alright, thanks,” Danielle said, departing to the nearest bunker. As impulsive and confident as Alex was, he at least set a few procedures in place, in case of an attack. Her nerves still blazed, and her knuckles still whitened whenever she thought of him though. Idiot, she thought her hand remaining on the rim outside of the entrance to the bunker. Stale air, and dusty floors here I come.

“Chief Sho, what are you doing here? This bunker isn’t anywhere near the I.T. offices,” someone asked.

“Wanted to see if I could help.” Danielle said.

“You really shouldn’t. If a typhon got inside then- “

“Then I’ll go to the nearest bunker.” she said, interrupting the person, dropping down with a grunt onto the floor. _Excuse me for trying to help, I kind of need electricity_ , she thought. Bunkers were typically bathed in darkness, with an added side effect of cooking you alive. No lights in the bunker existed, they could attract typhon or give the typhon an easier time locating you. Large air vents that could properly keep air cycling were replaced with smaller, tubular structures. Typhon could crawl through large vents. All of these put together led to a nice combination of poor vision, dry heat, and shortness of breath. However, the bunkers haven’t yet failed the crew.

Who knows how much time had passed before the screeching and grating sounded from the door, the sound ringing in her ears. A slice if light flooded into the cramped room, and hands went to cover eyes.

“Everything’s clear. All systems are online, you are all here free to go.” A security personnel said, voice echoing in the small chamber. Security had to give the all clear before anyone could leave, a decent procedure in theory.

Danielle’s eyes remained unrevealing to the world around her, eyelids shut tight. Hand gripping the rim of the doorway, she breathed in the cleaner air, thankful for the lack of stuffiness and sweat. Damn technopaths. If a phantom wandered too close it would get shot down or even ignored, but a technopath appears and everything goes to shit. Sadly, it wasn’t too much of an understatement. Danielle remembered back to the birth of the safehouse, when many too many machines ran on electricity. Thorough didn’t even begin to describe Alex’s efforts to preserve the survivors that lived there. Remote, underground, and equipped with powerful weapons. Until a technopath came by, waves of lights going off, heavy duty doors left open.

It wasn’t a fun day for the engineers after the attack, being forced to transform a lot of machines and protocols from digital to analog. Pretty sure it was better than getting ransacked by typhon though. Operators became taboo of sorts, used heavily but watched carefully. Technopaths that got close enough could take control of them.

“Chief Sho, where were you? We didn’t see you in the bunker?” Owen Peterson asked, another I.T. personnel, not from Talos I. Still skilled at his job, though.

“Went to see if I could do anything for the engineers.”

“Did you assist them?”

“No. Security told me to go bunk with the people down at the core systems.”

“Makes sense.” Peterson said. Resuming her position, her posture melted into her office chair, computer booting up. No reason to let this rattle anyone as long as the technopath didn’t bring any friends.

Data entry and analysis became staples of her job. Sometimes someone needed help with their computers, not often though. Other times operators broke down or malfunctioned. Or electricity got damaged in an area. When those situations occurred, the crew would brawl, pushing, shoving, the whole shebang. It was all for the chance to do something different. It was with some disgust that Danielle admitted the arrival of a technopath was a wanted distraction. Something to wake her from the realm of numbers and spreadsheets.

A stray email popped up in her feed. Answering emails also took up a large majority of her time. Looking closer, it was from security, hopefully confirming that everything was A-Okay. The email read:

Dear Chief Sho,

Regarding the recent power outage, I would first like to tell you that everything is normal. Everything is normal across the board. The security team did some digging about it, and we have some scans and footage of typhon presence. Thing is, it wasn’t a technopath. Some other variety, never seen it before, neither has the tech. Looked like a weaver or a telepath, but bigger. I’ve alerted it Mr. Yu already. Thought you would like to know, and put it into the logs.

Danielle’s hand hovered around her face, eyes narrowing at the screen. A new typhon variety. She sent a quick thank you email back, mind on autopilot, fingers tapping away. The spreadsheets wouldn’t fill themselves. Some useful security footage was attached to the email. Tendrils tapered and fell from its floating body, wavering tentacles stood up like hair on a cat. Eyes stared at her from every direction. _What the fuck is that,_ were the only words that conjured in her mind.

Leaving the comfort of her neat desk and warm chair, she raced out fingers clenching into and out of a fist. Speed walking through familiar hallways, gray and bleak, a surreal blur. Pictures, paintings, quotes all made their homes on different walls. Thoughts raced, falling behind Danielle as she made her way through the safehouse.

The light at the end of a tunnel was the entrance to a lab. Alex’s lab, the only typhon lab that existed. At least it was probably the only one. No number of disastrous situations would halt Alex’s pursuit to an understanding of them. Therefore, it was permitted for him to maintain one lab, as long as he never brought in any live subjects. But the presence of a the new typhon brought dark clouds over her vision. Many different types of the aliens existed, but this one had never been logged before, never witnessed. Something was going on in that lab. That had to be the explanation. The nightmare phenomenon brought it to everyone’s attention that the typhon had ways of knowing what was going on.

Shocker, the door to the lab was closed and locked tight. Dammit, he is doing something in there, she thought. Rapping on the door definitely wouldn’t give her access, maybe she should try a password. Gripping her transcribe she brought it up close to her mouth, calling a very familiar asshole.

“Alex, let me in. Now.” Danielle hissed.

“Chief Sho, I assure you everything is fine. No need to- “Alex said, voice muted by the transcribe.

“This is not a joke Mr. Yu. Let me in, or I’ll make your life hell.” Following a deep sigh, the door pinged, allowing her access to Alex’s hopes and dreams. There he stood, ready to protect them. “Just what did you do?” Danielle asked.

“Chief Sho, please allow me to explain.” Alex began.

“Oh, so there is something going on down here!”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then why do you need to explain it to me? You should be following the agreement.”

“Look, I don’t know what it is, the new typhon. Neither does anyone else here. But I assure you I don’t have any live specimen. I haven’t breached protocol.”

“Liar.” Danielle said, forcing her way in. If he was going to ignore the rules set in place, then Mr. Yu was going to have his toys taken away. She marched down yet again another hallway, nose wrinkled and eyes burning. Danielle thought she felt her fingers break from the tight fist her hand formed. How could he, especially after Talos I. As thankful as she was to have a place on this station, it didn’t matter if everyone was dead.

“Chief Sho, what are you doing here?” _Mind your own business._

“Chief Sho, wait. Let’s be civil and discuss this.” _No thank you._

“Hey, you shouldn’t be here!” _I shouldn’t have to be._

Shrugging off the crew she eventually made it to a fork in the hallway. No longer did an endless path stretch ahead of her, only the words SIMULATION LAB. Another Sim lab? What the hell could be in there, and what the hell was Alex up to. Pausing for a moment to let her mind wrap around it, she reluctantly headed in, slowly albeit.

A large, spacious room stretched in front of her. A few desks stationed at the back of the room; a few chairs sat in front of what appeared to be a screen. Meandering over she noticed security cameras at every angle.

“Chief Sho!” Alex said, catching up to her, face red and breathing raggedly, “please, let me explain.”

“No, you had your chance. Now I’m going to see exactly what monstrosity you have behind that glass.” Danielle said, attention still entirely on Alex as she stood right before the glass. Everything went cold as Danielle turned towards the expanse of glass. She gasped, her heart stopping. It was Morgan, Morgan Yu.

“No, how can that be. She’s dead.” Danielle muttered, staring at the figure before her, and it stared back. A stare reminiscent to that of the typhon, cold. Morgan almost looked sad, mouth twisted into a frown, eyes narrowed. Looking right into Danielle’s eyes, Morgan's mouth twitched. Morgan sat on her knees, hands gripping the ground as if she was searching for something. Or as if she fell.

“Danielle, I’d like you to meet Cobalt.” Alex said.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes it takes an accident for you to get what you want. Cobalt got pretty lucky when Danielle Sho made an unexpected appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be real, I had a plot and then I threw it away. So I don't know where I'm going.

“No, how can that be. She’s dead. Morgan’s dead.” Though I had never seen Danielle Sho’s face in the sim, I had an idea that this was her. Primarily her voice, the one that echoed in my head. The voice that spoke through the mechanical hum of an operator, an operator that more or less held her personality. Yet here Danielle was, alive in the form of flesh and blood. Human.

“Danielle, I’d like you to meet Cobalt.” Alex said.

“What- what do you mean Cobalt,” Danielle said “she – or it – looks just like Morgan, and is in a sim lab no less.”

 _I am not Morgan._ I communicated to her, putting as much emphasis on the not as telepathy could allow.

“What the hell!”

“Danielle, I need you to calm down. Please, let me explain.” Alex said, arms slightly outstretched towards Danielle.

Chief Sho merely just looked at him, lips quivering. I curbed my instinct to unleash the tendrils in turn for improved senses, despite the ache in my skin. Alex didn’t outright lie, but he didn’t tell me either. All I could see were cold nonliving operators, no idea that at least some of their human counterparts may walk as humans. Could that mean that other humans aboard Talos I were alive?

“Come with me,” Alex said, steering a motionless Chief Sho to another room. I tensed up, rearing backwards. No, he wasn’t going to go away and keep an explanation from me as well.

 _No._ They both looked back to me in a jerk of motion, Danielle gripping the sides of her head.

“Does it have to do that.”

“Cobalt hasn’t attempted to speak orally.” Alex explained, “what did you mean no, Cobalt?”

_I deserve an explanation as much as she does. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I was out of the simulation, and I was under the assumption that she was an operator. That they all were._

“Operator? All? Simulation? I’d have to agree with … Cobalt. Both of us are getting an explanation.” Danielle said, it was nice to know that she wasn’t advocating for my execution. Then again, she didn’t know much about me. She might not even know what I am.

“Alright, I guess I should have told you this when you first got out of the simulation.” Alex said.

 _You seem to have a habit of withholding information._ Alex chuckled, which seemed a little insensitive, given what happened to Morgan and all. Speaking of which, where was Morgan? Did my human counterpart exist? Did she know?

“Cobalt is the culmination of Project Cobalt. Which began in the days on Talos I.” Alex said.

“Project Cobalt? You don’t mean, please tell me you don’t mean _that_ project Cobalt.”

Alex was talking about that project Cobalt. Danielle and Alex sat down on a chair, I on the floor of the apartment Sim. With a sigh, Alex patted his hands on his thighs and began.

I already knew about the existence of Project Cobalt, I found evidence of it in the sim after all. As for the rest, it was a dark cave and I was going in blind. Alex relayed a lot of information, paragraphs of speech. Shocker, I wasn’t the first one. I didn’t know for sure, but after coming out of the sim the pain present on Alex’s face was unforgettable, especially since the project was a success. According to him, I was the thirteenth, way less than I was expecting.

Rage only grew within Danielle Sho, I could tell. Didn’t seem to be at me though. She gritted her teeth when Alex mentioned the whole operator thing.

“You created operators for this whole schpeel?”

“I needed a way to monitor it in the sim. They could see what it experienced, see through the eyes of your simulation counterparts. Much more effective than me reading vitals on a screen.”

“Why did they have to have personalities?”

“Like I said they were important people in the sim, important to Morgan.” Alex said, his gaze glancing down.

After not fully moving on from that, we all sat in awkward silence. My finger tapped the floor, synonymous with the ticking seconds. Given from what I knew, it was quite amazing how Danielle held her anger in. Assuming that she still harbored her anger from before Talos I, not sure why it would ever go away. It would be quite entertaining if she punched him.

“Alright, say it doesn’t attack anyone.” Danielle began.

_My name’s Cobalt._

“Right sorry, didn’t factor in typhon identity issues,” she said. “Anyway, assume _Cobalt_ doesn’t attack anyone. And doesn’t fall apart from being an improbable hybrid. What next? Was this simply because you could? Because if it is, I will terminate your experiment right here. Right now.” My eyes landed on Danielle, giving her a pleading look if she ever glanced towards me.

“You cannot order that. Even if what I do falls under perimeters you gave me, I’m still in charge here.”

“I have no problem disobeying you.”

“Cobalt is our best option. Presumably she should be able to access the coral, maybe even commune with typhon. She’ll be able to use typhon abilities far more effectively than any human could.”

“Do you know that for sure? What if Cobalt can’t do any of that? And what is your plan exactly? You speak as if you’re going to leave the safehouse.” Danielle said, a scoff leaving her lips. Alex glanced up at her, looking like a timid dog. “Oh god.” Her response was basically mine, once it hit me.

_Hold up, an infested space station is one thing. But this is Earth, an entire planet. There’s probably Typhon I’ve never seen._

“You’re right about that. It’s still too early to tell though. Give it a week, and we’ll have mission parameters.” Alex said.

“You don’t even know what you’re doing?”

“We have an idea. For now, please keep this a secret. Especially from those who were close to Morgan. There’s a reason I kept this a secret, even from Igwe.”

“Ahh yes, Morgan became less of an asshole and you remained the same. Earning her the favourite title.”

Danielle left soon after, exchanging a few more words with Alex. I never caught them though. Those words bounced in my skull, the one about Morgan. I was well aware that the Yu’s were rather difficult and disliked by some of the crew. But I knew nothing of what happened after Talos. When I tried to ask Alex about Morgan, he shrugged it off, as if he didn’t hear anything. I didn’t ask again, not much use.

I at least got some peace of mind; I wasn’t going to be executed. Danielle agreed to keep my existence a secret, more likely to humor Alex than anything else. Sighs of relief still came from my part.

It was nice that I was trusted not to kill people. Apparently, the surprise visit from Danielle confirmed that I wouldn’t go on a killing spree. It was a clever idea using glass that I could have broken, that way they would know if I was going to comply or not. They lifted the glass barrier between my familiar world to the cold unknown one outside. Planting my foot on the tiles in front of my ‘apartment’, I swung the other one so that I had entered this new world.

“Well, how does it feel?” The scientist asked, the one assigned to letting me out. Weird that Alex left, thought he’d like to see me taking my first steps.

_Weird. Good, but weird._

“This what it felt like in the sim, when you broke out?”

_Not really, aliens aren’t trying to kill me and I can feel._

“Always a possibility.” Unfortunately, it was. Danielle briefed me about the crew and where we all lived, where I lived now. Not your usual apocalyptic bunker, still just as complex as Talos I. Run and maintained by a group of engineers, of which Mikhaila Ilyushin was a part of. Speaking of her, what was her relationship with Morgan like after Talos I? What emotion would she feel if she saw me? If not many at once.

“This is still technically your quarters though, so even though you’ve been given free roam of the labs, you’ll return here. You just won’t be watched anymore.” The scientist said, as he motioned for me to follow him to the side of the sim. “You’ll enter and leave through here now.” I nodded.

Dr. Schneider lead me through all the procedures, protocols, and what not. I wasn’t to leave the typhon labs, because only the crew here and Danielle knew I existed. I was encouraged to use the brain I inherited from Morgan and tinker with things. And Alex was going to breathing down my neck awkwardly almost all the time. He didn’t say that, but I could tell anyway. At least I didn’t have to wrench mimics to death. Yet.

“Don’t have many rules for you. Don’t attack staff is the golden rule. You’re allowed in labs, but don’t poke around too much. That’s about it. Not much else to tell ya.” Dr. Schneider concluded.

 _Thank you._ I responded curtly, forcing the corners of my lips upwards.

“No problem,” he said, casting an awkward smile of his own. Dr. Schneider turned away and headed out of the Sim, glancing backwards nervously, eyes narrowed. He continued quickly after. Couldn’t blame him, I knew enough about what I was.

Standing around a couple of open doors, I toyed with the idea of annoying some scientists. But there was only so much I could gather from busy scientists, ones that probably didn’t know as much as Alex. I returned to the center of the room.

A few stray chairs littered the area around the apartment, even though I was no longer the star attraction. A very human pleasure it was, sitting in a chair. I didn’t get it, the tendrils just compressed and squeezed together. Not a nice feeling for my organs.

Still I sat, I spent a lot of time wondering what life was like out of a simulation. After I was forced to live through several. Yet now, here I sat not knowing what to do.

Right before the numbness began to take over my body, I felt it shift. The skin deconstructed, my body becoming a mass of snake like tendrils. Shreds of clothing Fell to the floor. Among the carnage, two chairs. It was for more comfortable being a chair than sitting in one. There were no tendrils shifting beneath the surface of the chair, just foam, metal, and fabric.

“Cobalt? Are you here? Expected to see you poking around the labs. None of the crew have seen you.” Alex said. A few tendrils twitched from the chair, rebelling from my will to stay hidden. I knew what others thought of Alex, what some still seem to think of Alex. But he was all I knew, the only constant. I shifted out of the chair, becoming the form of his beloved sister. It was partially my own form, since I knew it so well.

 _I’m here._ I communicated to him. He wandered in a bit more, before halting suddenly.

“Good god, Cobalt,” he said swiftly throwing a blanket at me. Shoot, kind of forgot about the whole human decency thing. I quickly wrapped the blanket around myself. “I guess we should have a few uniforms on hand for you,” Alex said.

 _Or adapt one of them to the whole mimic ability,_ I remarked.

“I wish we had the resources for that,” Alex said chuckling, smile on his face. Gripping his transcribe he put it to his mouth and asked for a spare uniform. A voice on the other end said they’d be there as soon as they could, sounding confused.

_Lucky it was you who came along, guess you weren’t too busy._

“How do you mean?”

_Well, it was more likely to be someone else in that short amount of time than you._

“Short? Cobalt, you’ve been like that for hours probably. Assuming you morphed into a chair shortly after Dr. Schneider left you,” Alex said. Didn’t know I could gasp, but I did. Hours? Felt more like seconds, peaceful and uneventful.

“Fascinating. Years of research on typhon, but we could never truly see through their eyes.”

_I’m not entirely typhon._

“You’re not entirely human either.” Alex said. If I hadn’t experienced the containment breach, I might have been impressed by myself. I was a scientific discovery, and I had Morgan’s mindset, somewhat. But I saw what the typhon could do first hand, and to an extent I saw what they did to Earth.

 _Hey, how are the others doing? The people I helped, the ones that I assumed Morgan also helped._ Alex put a hand on my shoulder.

“Danielle is fine, probably bored since things aren’t too exciting here. Seems to enjoy keeping me in check. Igwe is fine, hasn’t changed much from Talos I. He helps with typhon research, but we keep him out of the labs. Chief Elazar is well, chief Elazar. Unfortunately, I don’t talk to Mikhaila much.

_Only Danielle Sho knows about me?_

“Like I said. I knew they wouldn’t approve. Well at least most of them wouldn’t. I felt it was better if I just kept it secret from the general public and those four. That’s why I used operators, and kept the crew small.”

“Picked up that spare suit you wanted. Here.” The scientist said, before tossing it over to Alex.

“Go into your quarters, change into it. Get a good night’s rest. I hate to move too quickly, but I need you to be ready as soon as possible.” Alex said, taking off before I could bombard him with any other questions.

Wish I knew what he meant; I also wish that I didn’t have an idea. Spending the whole day hiding didn't prepare me whatsoever for what was to come. The choice was at least mine.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparations and precautions are made for a future trip, Cobalt learning what's expected of her. No matter how much they try though, Cobalt may not be that ready for what's to come.

Eyeing me awkwardly while he glanced at my files, I could tell this was going to be fun. Turns out Dr. Torres was going to be my physician, when Alex said he needed me ready soon I guess he was serious. Hope Torres didn’t have any hard feelings.

“So, umm I’m just going to do a standard appointment. Not that you’ve been through a regular checkup though,” Dr. Torres was shaking, his entire body. Felt kind of bad, he must have been the only doctor able to work with my biology, or else Alex would have chosen someone else. I began fiddling with the collar of my suit.

Weight, height, and temperature. I still wasn’t sure exactly what went on in a normal appointment, but I was willing to bet that Alex was going to go above and beyond in subjecting me to tests.

“Everything’s normal, and your numbers are pretty similar to Morgan. Except for your weight. But I guess that’s expected,” his voice didn’t stutter this time. All of that was easy enough, uncomfortable, but easy. I wondered what he meant about my weight, was it high or low? Banged my knee with a mallet, shown a light at my eyes. After that he appeared to be wrapping up, recording things on a piece of paper. Wasn’t too bad, then he brought a rubber band and a tube out. “Now Alex wants me to take blood.” My throat tightened.

_Wait, Alex wants you to do what?_ It wasn’t a question, but I hope to whatever god may be out there that I misheard.

“Just sit down, I know what I’m doing. I hope,” Dr. Torres said, the last part was probably too quiet for humans to hear, but not for me. Comforting. I reluctantly sat down on the chair with a gulp. I flexed my arm like he said to, and then he proceeded to poke the tip of the needle into my skin. It burned, and I grasped at the first thing that came to mind to get rid of the sensation. Mikhaila came to mind, it must suck to have to stick a needle in yourself constantly. And in your neck no less. That thought didn’t really help with ignoring it. Thankfully, a few more seconds and it was over, the tube now full of an opaque black liquid. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was gunk from a sewer. He grabbed a fuzzy cloud looking substance but before he could administer it the hole closed over. “Guess you don’t need a bandage.”

The heat remained, even though the needle had since been removed. I flexed my arm, though the skin was healed it still throbbed.

Alex didn’t have much else planned for that day. Just report to another lab, answer questions, another personality test. Then it was back to bed, my only love, the only thing there for me.

Sleep probably would have been the only thing on my itinerary, if it weren’t for Danielle making a surprise appearance. She arrived later in the day, nonchalantly standing in the doorway to the SIM lab.

“Are you ever bothered that your quarters are another sim lab,” she said to me.

_What are you doing here?_

“What? I can’t see how my favourite typhon is doing.” Danielle sat down on one of the spare desks that still littered the area outside of my quarters. Favourite?

“Danielle what are you doing here? I didn’t clear you for any other visits!” Alex yelled from the adjacent hallway, right before he burst into the room. Guess Danielle was tailed.

“That’s Chief Sho to you. I thought I’d begin monitoring your experiments, I also updated your guidelines. Take a look when you can,” Chief Sho took a sip of her coffee, casting Alex a look.

_Chief Sho, what did you mean favourite? And what guidelines?_ She seemed so calm, not even bothering to cover her ears when I communicated to her. She didn’t even seem a little bit rattled, even though I stood right beside her without a glass barrier in the way.

“ _You_ can call me Danielle, and don’t worry I’ll be sure that Alex makes you aware of the lab rules,” Danielle answered. I’ll take what I can get for answers.

“Chief Sho, once again you are not permitted here. I will call security,” he said searching his pockets and pulling out a transcribe.

“You don’t get to do that; you broke the rules so that means I get to be here. And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, just keep me on the up and up,” Danielle said, Alex’s mouth was agape. He would definitely scratch his head if didn’t undermine him.

“Well, I had some tests run on Cobalt. Still waiting on results.” Alex said with a sigh. “And that’s all,” he added, finally walking away after a few moments of silence feet trailing sluggishly.

“It’s about time that man got some rest,” Danielle muttered, once Alex was reasonably out of range.

_Alex didn’t peg me as the kind of guy to overwork himself._

“He’s not, he works hard but not constantly. I’ve actually been planning on coming down for a long time, he’d been taking a lot more overtime than usual. Guess it took a lot of hours to bring you to life,”

_I’m not a corpse._

“Are you sure? You know how phantoms are made.” She chuckled.

_Well, I thought … Never mind._ Danielle look back at me, one eyebrow raised. I couldn’t bring myself to meet her eyes.

“I know how he made you, wasn’t hard to find out. You aren’t just a phantom.” It was my turn to look surprised, she confirmed it. I had a hunch I was more than just a corpse wrapped in snakes. But hearing it was different, liberating in a strange way. She was likely going to continue, or the big breath she was taking was for nothing. “No one knows how Morgan died, but we do know that she is dead. Somehow, he got enough DNA from her to be able to create you. I can’t say entirely how, but you were grown in these labs. And besides, no one is crazy enough to steal a phantom, or find a weaver to phantomize a corpse. Not even Alex.”

_That explains why a human form is comfortable to me._ It also explains that even when I abandoned my human form, the tendrils still kept a humanoid shape. Well slightly more humanoid than a phantom. _Hey, what was Morgan like? You know, after Talos?_ I sat down next to her, despite the clenching of my organs and tendrils.

“What was Morgan like after Talos,” she merely repeated, finger running across the top of her coffee mug.

_Yeah that’s what I asked._ She let out a small laugh, smiling briefly before clearing her throat. She seemed to have a habit of pauses before relaying uncomfortable news.

“Morgan was different after Talos, after the whole memory wiping thing and typhon outbreak. She didn’t die in the Talos outbreak, if that’s what you’re wondering. It was around the time of the typhon outbreak on earth when she died, I’m not sure though. I will say one thing though, she was nicer, as well as timider. We all remained somewhat close after Talos. We were forced to bunk together a few months after the incident for security reasons.”

She put her hand on my shoulder, squeezing it. I wondered if it was painful for her to see me even now, she was kind to me and I guess that was the most important thing. She walked away, likely leaving to go to her own cabin. I entered my own living space, gaze falling on my bed and soon enough I was there smothered in blankets.

“Morgan, wake up. You’re burning daylight.” What a nice message to wake up to. Regardless, I was up and out immediately. I didn’t really have any idea what Alex was doing or preparing me for, so I had no idea what was going to happen in the coming days.

As soon my feet stepped into the lab, it was empty. Bare white walls rising above a white floor. Except it wasn’t really empty. Instead of microscopes and petri dishes, it was blocks, bricks, and pieces of lumber. Of course, Alex stood in the center of it all, lips pursed in a frown. Apparently smiling just wasn’t something he did.

_What’s on the agenda?_ I asked, walking in and breathing in the stale air that had been cycling through that room.

“Agility, strength. I want to see your physical capabilities. I would take you to the resident gym,” Alex paused to take a breath but I knew what he was going to say.

_If it weren’t for the crew and keeping me a secret, yeah, I get it._ Instead of lifting weights and running on a treadmill I get to chop blocks of wood like a ninja, and this was heavily pointed out by the passersby. Especially when Alex set up the long pieces of lumber.

“Break it,” He demanded. Here goes, my hand twitched and trembled as the tendrils emerged. My fingers snaked together forming a sharp, pointed tendril, right before I reared back and brought the tendril down on the wood. A crack echoed throughout the room as the two chunks dropped to the floor. Alex flinched, not sure if it was the wood breaking or how quickly the tentacle shrank and reformed into a human hand. A human hand covered in pale skin.

_What’s next sensei?_ I gave my own joke a chuckle. I just hoped that none of the scientists got eaten by a mimic like last time. Poor Bellamy.

“Get to the other side of that obstacle, without walking around it,” Alex ordered. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to use typhon abilities, or pure unadulterated strength. To be honest, he would probably be satisfied with anything. I was new and unique.

The obstacle was tall enough to cast a light shadow over me. I backed up a little and ran forward, feeling the intensity as my feet hit the ground hard. Leaping up I scrambled and grabbed the top of the obstacle, hanging there for a moment. With a grunt I pulled myself up and let myself drop to the floor on the other side. White light bathed me as I landed. I could feel the tendrils compact and squeeze, fun feeling.

Run there, run back, jump up, I was surprised this wasn’t a part of my doctor’s appointment. Wouldn’t have felt out of the ordinary. That’s what I thought for the most part of the day until I collapsed into my bed. I could see why humans did this; living was painful. My muscles burned and my eyes were practically glued shut. Couldn’t be much more after that.

There was more after that. Both somehow less and more intense. Alex had one of the burly security personnel assigned there go over firearm safety. I would have scoffed it off if he hadn’t taught me a few useful things. There were a lot of details not captured in the simulation.

A couple other crew members went over non-standard tech weapons. A familiar red machine was among them, the GLOO gun. I didn’t know how long it had been, but with how useful it was for slowing down Typhon they probably perfected it. I could see a few more knobs and coils on it. Of course, a few other tools were on the table, varying greatly from one another. They taught me how to use them all, good to know that scientific innovations had still been made since the whole typhon apocalypse.

The next day, I sat down at a conference table. Glistening lights spread a warm haze across the room. The table was long and smooth, shining in the light with a handful of chairs sprinkling the edges. Book shelves, ash trays, a large black screen. It was definitely of a higher quality than anywhere else I had seen.

Alex was there as well, sitting a few chairs away from me. He fiddled with papers and cartridges, shielding their contents from a stalking me.

“Cobalt,” Alex muttered as he scooched away from me, chair squeaking. _Maybe you should tell me what’s going on, then I wouldn’t have to try to catch a peek,_ I was careful not to broadcast that thought. I had a problem where I would accidentally communicate private thoughts. The crew sure did give me a weird look when I accidentally told them about my itching tendrils.

I grabbed the collar of my suit and fiddled with it; waiting for something to strike.

Before they even entered, I could hear the parade of approaching bodies. Idly muttering, small footsteps. Wasn’t long before they entered the conference room taking a seat on padded chairs. How at ease they looked while they squished their insides.

Danielle and Alex were the only people I really recognized, but I could tell the professions of the anonymous among me. Scientists and security. Different roles had different suits and I could tell what most people’s roles were. Black and blue for security, green and white for scientist. The only reason why I wouldn’t be able to discern a profession, is if I was never told what one was. They sat away from me, suit black and purple, pen wedged between their fingers. They paid me no heed.

“Alright, is this everyone?” Alex addressed the room; everyone gave either a curt nod or subtle ‘yeah’. Alex cleared his throat, “alright you may be wondering why I’ve gathered you all here. And why I made you keep this meeting confidential especially from your superior officers.” I heard a few coughs, and saw a few more nods in response. Not a very talkative crowd I guess, but then again, I was thankful. Not sure they would be too keen to be in the same room with a typhon. If they didn’t speak, I never had to communicate.

Alex rose from his chair, making his rounds and dropping off files in front of everyone. Purple suit grabbed his right from Alex’s hand, blowing air and rolling his eyes as he laid it in front of him.

“I’d like you all to look through this,“ he said, wandering over to one of the security officers and whispering something in their ear, something I couldn’t catch with human skin covering my ears. Didn’t have to though, the security guard coughed as he wandered over to me, towering above me with a gun in hand. The hairs on my skin rose, hands shaking, breath erratic.

“What the hell Dr. Yu! I thought Morgan was on some kind of secret mission and you faked her death! What do you mean that’s a typhon?” One of the bodies spoke, seething with anger and pointing a gloved finer at me. Guess the paper they were reading had a lot of sensitive information.

“Wait that’s Morgan Yu?”

“What the hell, Dr. Yu is gone … I know they are!”

I heard other exclaims and questions, along with other bodily gestures. I couldn’t bring myself to look up at them. It was already bad enough I could feel them leave their chairs, that I could hear the security officer cock his gun.

“No. Morgan is dead,” a dark cloud hung over everyone, the sound of squeaking wheels alerting me that they all sat down. Alex didn’t even appear to be covering it up, when you lie so much, people expect a lie no matter what you tell them. “As the documents say, Cobalt is part typhon and they are our only way to win.” Alex sounded so sure, yet no one rebutted him.

“I understand you may not want to work with a typhon, but this is the only way.” A few people breathed in, as if to begin a sound off of questions and exclamations. Alex began quicker than the questions could, “you leave in four days. So, mark your calendars. Your mission is to gather typhon and coral data. No amount of nuclear blasts could hope to wipe them out, but a large enough nullwave transmitter is our shot to victory. Due to security reasons we cannot tell you more. Is this clear?” Alex asked and heads nodded.

“I would just like to add that I know this mission may sound crazy. But Alex has contingencies in place, so you’re in good hands.” Danielle said, she really was going to be involved in this.

“Any questions?” There weren’t many, despite the situation. A few people gave me an odd look and asked if I was ‘safe’. They seemed happy with an answer of ‘if I’m not just shoot me’. “Meeting dismissed.” Not a single body lingered, not a doubt in their mind. Except for purple suit who sat playing with his pen. Security ushered him out eventually.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve attempted this mission. But we hope that with you, we can finally have some success.” Alex said, a proud smile making itself on his sad face.

_Nice, so no pressure?_ Danielle chuckled at that.

“I wish I could say so, but this is important. Just try your best, it should be enough. If I could prepare you more I would.” The frown returned, allowing the wrinkles in his skin to be easily illuminated by the overhead lights. “By the way, a day before your mission I need you to go to the security station. Officer Williams will know where to take you. I need to know this one thing before sending you out.” With that he was gone, striding out of the room with purpose.

“Way to be cryptic,” Danielle muttered.

_Indeed._

I wondered how those chosen for this mission felt. The safehouse was their home, and now the man in charge was forcing them out for only a sliver of a chance of success. If things were as miserable as they seemed, then maybe they were willing to take a shot at destroying the alien menace. To see it crumble to death just like it should have on Talos. To right Morgan and Alex’s failure. I wondered if purple suit held these beliefs. Perhaps he was different, special in an odd way that qualified him for that vibrant suit.

The rest of the typhon labs looked just like I expected them to, drab but trying to seem fancy. Beautiful paints sat against dirt splattered walls. Benches and plants stood among grey tiles, likely once glowing white. The security station was included in the reign of grime.

_Officer Williams?_ I communicated to the body turned away from me, as it shoved objects away and kneeled on the floor.

“Jesus!” She exclaimed, turning to look at me with a battle stance. “Could have given me a warning,” I shrugged as an apology. We stared at each other for a second more, my hand finding my other arm and gripping it in the tension. “Right! Your thing with Alex, let me take to the observatory!” She hurried out, adjusting her suit and pushing past me. Making haste, I followed close behind.

Alex was a lot of things, arrogant, prideful, but stupid and unprepared was not one of them. Until I realized that the security officer was smuggling me through people infested hallways. Turns out Alex wanted me to join him in the main safehouse observatory. Great.

I knew barely anything about the safehouse, just that it was built relatively recently and was mostly underground. Well, I also knew that it held approximately five hundred people, thus was much more grandiose than Talos. At least Alex was kind enough to allow the general population access, as long as they helped out in some kind of way.

The larger amount of people also leads to a larger chance of me being caught. I knew exactly how to avoid it, and Alex was ahead of me. The unique polymorphic ability of some typhon was revered for being deadly, but useful if you’re trying to sneak something — or someone — in.

Funny and clever, they had me turn into a block of exotic material so that scanners didn’t detect a typhon and people didn’t see a deceased Morgan Yu. Not like anyone saw the block though. Being stuffed into a stuffy, itchy, cramped cloth bag took care of me being seen at all. This also made it so that I was unaware, while the world and time passed me by.

Like a lion in the brush, I waited and remained hidden. The muffled sounds of crew, and hissing machinery barely reached my ears. The only thing I was waiting to strike at was Alex, for making me sit in a cloth bag.

“Officer Williams,” Alex greeted, presumably standing up with the screech of a chair. “Thank you, please leave the cloth bag. That will be all.” All of the other materials in the bag collapsed around me, but I could tell the cloth bag was being opened. A gloved hand grasped me, holding me up to the world and no longer was it hidden.

My feet touched the ground, it felt more real to be something with feet, something that breathed. I wiggled my fingers, and rolled my shoulders. When I was no longer mesmerized by the ability to wriggle my limbs, my vision panned across the observatory.

A large dome stretched beyond me. Panels spanned the roof, covered by a veil. All light except warm yellow lamps illuminated the space. Levels of floors existed, and the muffled voices of crew existed below me. Guess this was kind of like the arboretum, just without the plants.

Alex had us on the top level, which like the last couple floors were mere rings around the dome. I suppose this was a prime viewing spot.

_Alright, so why did you smuggle me all the way up here?_

“Coral. I need to know how you react to it, how you communicate with it.” Alex said. Sometimes I wished that I could forget I was part typhon, but no one ever let me. Grabbing his transcribe he barked an order, “Open the protective panels.”

My hands shot to my ears, as the panels began to grind, opening slowly. My eyes were closed shut way before I could see blades of light cutting through the darkness. Must have been a solid minute before the vibrations stopped and I caught a peak.

A land plagued by shadows was now glowing from almost every angle, and I could see the outlines and shadows of the people below.

“Don’t look too hard, they might see you.” Alex said, grabbing my arm and dragging me back from the railing. He turned away from me, holding his hands behind his back before giving his signature sigh. Walking up next to him, I craned my neck upwards to the sky above.

Grey and billowy clouds stretched across the horizon, blazoned by a rising sun. Roses, golds, reds, oranges, so many colours and yet so little. I raised my hand, watching the light dance on the leathery suit.

“This was one of our best innovations. After hiding like prey for so long, we finally had the courage to face the stars again. Many of the crew like to relax here, as long as there aren’t any typhon nearby,” Alex said. Beautiful as it was, the open glass was a risk no matter how strong it was. Since Typhon could be confirmed of a living presence that they haven’t leeched yet. While I stayed, admiring the view, Alex went to fumble around for something. He grunted after about a minute, before a clank sounded on one of the tables.

I jerked my body to face him, not needing to ask what he had just retrieved. A sizable cylindrical metal container sat on the table, panels of glass revealing its contents. The container held no more than a few strands of the golden substance that spread so widely, and flickered so wildly. Even now it swam in my eyes, I kneeled down so that I was eye level with it.

If it had voices, it would speak with all the echoes that it stole. Even without a voice it spoke, even thought it was so tiny. Like how you could learn so much from a single strand of hair. Images of tendrils, and black masses, of worlds over run with gold. I could hear them now.

People screamed, they yelled in anger and terror. I flinched, trying to move away, but the noises refused to cease. Pained gasped, chokes, the crunch of bones. I tried to shake my head, covering my face with my hands. I could see them, as they fell to the ground, as they were slashed, torn and beaten. I could feel their thoughts of resistance, how much they hated what was being done to them, what they were made to do. Voices echoed all around me, weapons sounding off. It was with no surprise that so many of them blended together.

Eventually my pleading for it stop was heard, as everything went black and the last few screams faded away. Shutting off so quickly.

“No, we need to leave her here! I need to be sure she can be ready; she needs to learn how to tap into coral!”

“Face it, she’s not ready.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eventually it's time for children to leave the nest, except everywhere outside of the nest is alien infested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens. I think.

Lights flashed in my face; I went to cover my eyes, hands merely pulling against a barrier in the process. My breathing grew shallow, body shaking with each rasp. A horizon filled with teeth consuming my mind.

Another chair, another set of buckles encasing my limbs. The same cramped, stuffy room. It was the same place that I woke up from the simulation.

My head cast down, and my eyes grew wet. No matter how hard I closed them, I could see it, hear it. Everything that happened on the Sim, everything that the coral was so gracious to show me. Crying was a very human response to sadness, yet so very alien to me.

“I’m sorry, Cobalt.” Alex said walking into the room, the very familiar room. I tried to speak, yet I couldn’t or Alex was ignoring me. I broadcasted the same thought so many times, listening to the increased distortion each time I tried.

“You can’t talk to me right now. After the incident we had your psionic capabilities nullified. Don’t worry it’s not permanent,” he said his hand patting my strapped down shoulder. My eyes narrowed down in a glare, knuckles whitening as they ball into a tight fist. “I hope you understand why I did this. After we had you sedated, we had to take you away before security could find you. They’ve been searching for a phantom for the past few hours,” I wasn’t about to thank him. Eventually the tears ceased production and dried, I let out a sigh. I wish I could tell him what it was like, seeing those things.

Straps and buckles came undone, sliding across my suit. I flexed my fingers before putting myself on my feet, guess my psionic capabilities were no longer restricted. Cloaking myself in pale skin came up first.

_I don’t know what happened. At first everything was fine,_ I looked away with knitted eyebrows. A frown made itself know on my features.

“Neither do we. Our plan was to introduce you to the contained coral and then see if you could gather anything from the coral surrounding the safehouse.” That seemed like a stupid idea, but my body felt too heavy to do anything. Maybe it was only stupid because of what happened. Did my feet always feel like they were bolted to the floor?

“Let me take you back to the apartment,” it was more of a command than a sentiment. He grabbed my arm and started to take me away, legs finally responding. To the left, down the stairs, a right, I remembered the path. It wasn’t long after we made a left that I yanked my arm away, casting a dirty stare. “Cobalt,” his arms settled at his side, head cocked slightly as if in affection.

_No. You don’t get to act like everything is alright. You don’t know what I’ve seen! It was awful, it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen._ I began to choke up, despite the fact that I was speaking telepathically.

“It was what?”

_It was awful._ He put a hand around his ears, rubbing the area as if in pain. Good, he deserved some discomfort.

“Cobalt, are you feeling alright?”

_What would give you –_ He did it again, stopped to rub his ear.

“I can’t hear you, only static,” he said. Only static? I tried again to talk to him, didn’t seem to go through. My body dropped lower, knees heaving under the weight.

“Cobalt?” Alex said. A moment passed and he said it again, then again, but my body refused to respond. “I see what’s happening here, stay there. I’ll be right back,” he announced before leaving the room as I obliged, leaning my body weight against the cold expanse of a metal wall.

He returned shortly with a familiar metal case. It clicked as it opened, Alex gripping the needle encased inside. I let out a low groan, still feeling the miniscule hole in my arm from the blood test. Nobody said anything about psi hypos.

“Am I doing this or you?” He raised his eyebrow, the violet liquid inside sloshing gently. I reached out and took it from him, gingerly removing my glove. I pricked my skin, pursing my lips as I let the fluid enter my veins, feeling it circulate, repressing the urge to shudder. Hopefully this didn’t become a regular occurrence. Alex coughed, “do you need anything else?”

_No._ Alex appeared to have gotten the message, descending down the stairs. I only followed close behind because there wasn’t really anywhere else to go. Stopping abruptly, Alex pushed me against a wall, closing me in. Of course, I probably could have easily escaped, but he seemed elsewhere, eyes glancing away from me. Still, he had narrowed eyes and a rigid posture.

“Shh, don’t move until I get back. It’s not safe for you.” He set off in a hurry, leaving me in the dust. I of course sat down, still feeling a little unsteady, wondering what possible danger could have whisked him away. The skin around my ear eroded, leaving unraveling black tendrils that danced with their new found freedom. Catching songs travelling the air, it spun them into sounds.

“Dr. Yu, how good of you to join me.” I knew the voice well, icy, commanding, cutting, it was Sarah Elazar’s.

“I already told you, I don’t have any live specimens. I have adhered to every guideline set in accordance to Typhon research.”

“I wish I could believe you Dr. Yu. But you have a track record, and your word means nothing. Crowley, take your team and search the east flank. James, the west.”

“Do what you must then, Chief Elazar.”

The echo of footsteps was the last thing I heard, before more grinding gears sounded. Metal clashed, and sounds ceased, lights fading away. Guess Alex had a few contingency plans that even I wasn’t aware of.

It was never dark for me; I could still see the individual bumps on the metal floor grates. Darkness was just cold to me. But with nowhere else to go, I remained sitting. Skin forming even with no reason to conceal myself. Being human felt comfortable right now, made me forget the reason that made me dangerous, the reason that endangered me all the same.

Time had slowly become less of a mysterious subject to me. I could distinguish the tick of a second and the passing of a minute. But without a clock, they still meant little. All I knew, is that it would be a while before Alex returned.

Eventually he did, the screeching of metal alerting me that the barriers that locked me in were moving. Like puzzle pieces. I could hear things now, and the faint warmth of electric light shone on me. Danger was far away. Probably.

Alex soon appeared in front me. He held out his hand, and I rose to my own two feet by myself. My legs flopped awkwardly; I was used to using levitation to pick myself up from the floor. We walked back to the apartment in silence.

I had no reason to stay awake any longer. I was tired, I was confused, and I could still see the images in the back of my mind. The coral reached out to me, now knowing of my entity.

_What were they searching for?_ I asked him, hoping that ignorance would save me.

“I think you know. Of course, they didn’t find you. Chief Elazar left when she was satisfied that no traces of living typhon could be found. She’s still on edge, we’ll have to be careful from now on.”

_You weren’t before?_ I communicated while plopping myself down on the bed, pillows bouncing slightly.

“You know what I mean.” He brought a chair over, sitting in front of me.

“I need to know if you understand. I’m well aware of my past, and what others think of me. But I need you to hear it from me, why I’m doing this.”

I did understand. I knew very little about what I was, and it was the same on Alex’s part, but I did understand my reason for existence. Whether I agreed was a different story.

_I get it. I understand._ Giving him a small smile felt polite, it was never returned though. Instead he sighs his signature sigh.

“You’re so different from Morgan. Even from the Morgan that escaped Talos I,” he looked away, frowning with a glassy look in his eye. “I remember when she died. It fueled me in a way I didn’t expect. I miss her; I’ve been missing her ever since the initial neuromod tests.” Alex sighed as he got up, leaving me in the dark apartment. It felt as stark as ever, despite all the Knick knacks that laid around.

Odd as it was, that was a comforting notion. I was essentially too young to know what it was like to lose someone. But it was nice to know he didn’t see me as her, that I wasn’t just another Morgan. I was Cobalt, someone who might understand his loss a little more than anyone else. Since I still had Morgan’s memories and all.

It was a slow start to that day, stayed in bed for what I thought was an extra hour. Hours felt like they could turn to days, all the more I felt I could stay. Until Alex came to relieve me.

“Are you ready? I can’t postpone this any longer.”

_Yes._

Alex explained as we walked, and as I shoved a few items into a bag. Today is the day, that I embark on a suicide mission into doomed lands, the likes of which I have never seen. No matter how many times I tried to insist I needed longer, it had been post-poned long enough.

Upon entering the main hallway, we embarked towards the main door outside of the typhon labs, right before Alex took a sharp left and stopped at the wall. I was about to protest before the wall opened. A sheet of metal slid up, revealing a doorway into a smaller, darker hallway. My jaw dropped; this was a whole new level of thorough.

_I don’t want to go through that, can’t you smuggle me?_

“There is no other way out of the facility. Sneaking you out of through the main door is too dangerous, too risky.” Guess I understood. The hallway was dark and musty, soon after I stepped in the wall closed shut without a noise. The way to go was clear, as the hallway continued forward without a turn.

Slowly enough my eyes eased to the darkness, faint details becoming visible. painted lines on the walls and floor, and a staircase up ahead. Seemed like a hazard to anyone who had never been in here, or to anyone who couldn’t see in the dark.

Twists and turns, more stairs, this was a confusing lay out for an unlit tunnel. Even Alex bonked into a few walls. He didn’t walk right into the most important wall, as he abruptly stopped before a dead end, and fiddled with his transcribe. Seamlessly the wall split apart, and light cut into my eyes. A glorified garage, he brought us to a glorified garage.

The room was decently large, the floor made of concrete and the walls of reinforced metal. A single jeep dressed in camo stood before a circular door. Untouched boxes lay to the sides, Alex heading toward them.

“The others should be arriving shortly, make yourself comfortable.”

I helped Alex move boxes around, take inventory, gave me a chance to rifle through the contents of them. Sitting comfortably meant letting my mind wander, letting doubts come to mind. Even now I heard them in the back of my mind. I swallowed and shook my head, just needed to block it out harder.

The walls opened again, the groans and complaints of people making itself noticeable.

“When’s the last time that tunnel was cleaned, Dr. Yu?” A voice said coughing.

“Greetings squad, thank you for coming.”

“Didn’t think I had a choice,” one of the voices muttered, I chuckled. Guess that’s how he got them to agree to a suicide mission. Clearing his throat Alex began his schpeel.

“You’re going to be gone for approximately two weeks. I’ve supplied you with enough resources to last that time as long as you ration it accordingly. Among your supplies is inventory, monitor it carefully. Each of your transcribes has a list of key locations I need you to visit. Most importantly, don’t kill each other.”

Somehow, he was able to keep things both streamlined and to the point, while also rambling. But most importantly, I know not to kill my crew. Speaking of which, we all had codenames. If the mission was a success, Alex wanted it confidential who did the deed.

There were five other people on the expedition. Steel, a tall man with a muscular build, one of the security personnel assigned. He had no emotion in his eyes, and was hard to read. The other security personnel had a look of humour in her eyes, but she appeared to be just as hardened. Etched into her suit was Tungsten. Gold and Silver, twins. Both were brown haired and lean, eagerness present in their eyes and body language. Then there was Pyrite, or purple suit. Black hair, medium build, curiosity swam in his eyes. Though our eyes never met, my eyes were definitely on him.

After we were all acquainted, and everyone gave me an odd look, we boarded the jeep. Security in the front, scientists and purple suit in the back, and me with the cargo. Alex said that if I hid with the cargo that the scanners would be less likely to detect me. My nose wrinkled as I let out a huff, they probably didn’t trust me to sit with them!

“All aboard!” Steel yelled before slamming his foot down, and the car’s engine began to snarl, vibrating from within. We blasted out of the grimy garage shortly after. From beneath the covering I waved Alex goodbye, my face bearing the same frown.

Alex and Danielle were all I knew, some of the only people I recognized from before this mess. Steel, Tungsten, Gold, Silver, and Pyrite, fake names attached to unknown faces. Best case scenario was some mild awkwardness, worst case I get shot. I wish Danielle would have come to see me off, I might never see her again.

Alex and the garage got smaller and smaller, as the car set out on an unseen path. Pulling the cover over me, I huddled up nice and small, hugging my knees.

“Are you scared of it?”

“Not really, I have a shotgun, and there’s even more weaponry in the back. If it comes at me, I’ll just shoot it.”

It, I was an _it._

“It could save our lives if we run into trouble.”

“Or it could end them.”

“Cobalt is right there.”

“Pfft, I don’t care about its name.”

_This is gonna be a fun time, isn’t it?_ I joined the array of voices. The jeep skidded to a halt, rolling me into a barrier.

“What. The. Hell.”

“Didn’t you read that Cobalt communicates telepathically? Tsk. Tsk. You should have read the files Dr. Yu gave us.”

“Shut your trap … Gold! I hate these stupid nicknames.” I was able to identify this voice as Tungsten, and the one before as Gold. Progress.

“Now, if you’re all done. I’d like to keep going,” a deeper, calmer voice spoke. Upon taking a peek I saw that it belonged to Steel, glad that he seemed to have all his screws tight.

After a moment, they accepted my odd way of communication and let me speak freely. I chimed in rarely, but there wasn’t much to say. Tungsten enjoyed getting in everyone’s business though. Purple suit enjoyed being silent. The twins enjoyed being right.

I watched as dirt roads, and dry grass passed by. The sun dancing across the sky, shedding light. Deep reds, soft yellows began to bleed across the sky as time passed. Despite the activities — or lack of — that I was taking part in, my energy had begun to wane.

The pressure on the vehicle eased as it slowed, I could feel it. Tall blades of grass shielded the car from searching eyes, and the setting sun. I flinched and fell on my back as a loud clicking sounded off, the cover collapsing on me.

_What is that?!_ As far as I knew these labs were alien infested, and chittering was not a good sign. Even if I was an alien myself.

“Never heard crickets before?” Silver said, at least that’s who I think said it. Pretty sure I heard a scoff from Tungsten as well.

_I live in a lab._

“Fair enough. Come out from under there, we’re safe because crickets won’t hurt you,” Silver said, holding the cover above my head with a smile on her face. She held out her hand, and I took it. She pulled me out, and I maneuvered my legs to stand on the ground. They flopped around like pool noodles, I was far too used to simply levitating and dropping myself on the ground. Brushing the dirt off my suit, I gave her a small smile.

“Great, she’s out of the cargo, both of you grab tents and a match. Going to be a long night.”

Tungsten created a flame with the snap of her fingers, or more literally dragging a match across the matchbox. Fascinating how that’s all it takes to make sparks fly. Steel and Pyrite silently set up the tent, the only sounds being fumbling. Other than that, it was quiet, too quiet.

We all sat down around the fire, some stiff, some fidgeting. Dragging my attention away from the flickering fire,

_Where are the typhon?_

“Oh! Jesus … keep forgetting about your telepathy. The typhon are thankfully not here. We weren’t stupid when we chose our location, barely any come out here,” Tungsten explained.

“Indeed, the typhon don’t care much about the plains. Without humans there’s barely anything for them to prey on. And they like to stick close to the coral, which is denser in cities,” Gold added; head held high while he said it. No one said much after that.

Eventually we all retired to the tents. Gold and Silver immediately went to the same tent. Tungsten and Steel glanced at each other, before settling in the same tent. That left me with Pyrite. We looked at each other once, I noticed that his eyes were blue like the sky. A sky I barely saw. He crawled into the tent, I was close behind.

“Rise n’ shine! Got some eel, fried and crispy,” of all the things that stuck from Talos, I’m not sure how I felt that eels stuck. They crunched when the others bit down, yet a prolonged chewing time suggested they were plenty chewy. I shivered, what even were eels.

“You look like someone who’s never had eels before.”

_I haven’t._

“Right, you don’t eat food.”

Nor did I have any intentions of eating it, I was fine doing whatever I did to gain energy. I didn’t seem to need to rely on psi hypos, just the one time after the coral. I shuddered when it came to mind, shunning it away immediately.

Since I didn’t need to eat food, I didn’t need to experience what Silver experienced. Her face scrunched up with every bite. Guess the others had strong stomachs.

When we got going, I soon didn’t feel the need to check the ever-constant grasslands. Unchanging, unshifting no matter how much time had passed. Instead I let the tendrils break free from their skin prison. Not a lot, but the writhing tendrils were definitely visible. As were glowing white eyes.

Instead I listened. Seats squeaked as bodies fidgeted, and the silence was drowned by casual conversations. They wondered what it would be like when they got home, and they feared if they would meet their demise. Some masked it better than others, but fear was a stench. An easily recognizable stench.

“Email from Alex Yu. Asking how we’re doing, response?” Silver said.

“Just say everything’s fine and the typhon is still alive.” Tungsten replied, straight forward enough.

When the sun glowered less brightly through the covering, I knew we’d be stopping soon. Something stopped us from travelling at night, and I knew what it was.

Steel and I carried large loads of equipment to our camping grounds. He was stone-faced most of the time, always eyeing me. Then I proceeded to pick up a pile of crates, an amount that any person my size would have crumbled under. His jaw dropped, eyes widening. A faint emotion was present in his eyes, he was afraid. Shaking his head, he turned away. Things weren’t any less awkward from before, perhaps even more so. His hands trembled as we set up the tent.

They began rounds of small talk at the campfire. Complaints, grievances, assurances. Far more silent than yesterday’s rounds.

“These plains are never as safe as you’d like them to be,” Steel muttered. Instead of bewilderment, most of the bodies around the fire seemed to nod in agreement.

_What do you mean?_ It was silent for a moment longer, before a musing face spoke.

“In the early days of the attack, a lot of people set up in prairies, grasslands, general flat lands. Typhon were still mostly infesting the cities, so flat land was considered safer. Until it wasn’t. Typhon go where their food is,” Gold enlightened me. I wondered if it was survivors of such an incident that made up a portion of safehouse inhabitants. If enough survived that is.

Big surprise, I got set up with Pyrite again. It was silent save for the faint noises of surrounding tents.

_What’s your deal, anyway, purple suit?_

“Purple suit?” He said, head turning to look at me, his face bore a look of disgust and confusion. Didn’t think it was possible to get his attention. “You do realize that I’m not wearing a purple suit anymore.”

_No, but it is your standard uniform. And it’s one I haven’t seen before._

“Where would you have seen any others?”

_Oh, you didn’t know? Alex had me put in a simulation from the initial typhon break out._

“The Talos I incident?” I nodded, “ _the_ initial typhon out break?” I nodded again. “I’ll say one thing, it led to the purple suit.”

Wouldn’t it have led to the others as well? The system was created for Talos. Likely he meant the outbreak itself lead to the suit, regardless, I couldn’t put a finger or a tendril on it. He refused to humour me further, so I closed my eyes and prepared myself for another day of driving.

After two days of lying on the grated floor, you eventually forget that it’s leaving imprints on your skin. Being under a cover that trapped the heat made it feel like I was getting grilled like a hamburger. Or at least what I remember from them. Happier times, I knew they weren’t mine but it felt like I went through them just the same. Whimsical moments, long hours, endless effort. Since I never had a childhood, those memories were all I had.

A cold object bonked against my cheek, contrasted by warm structures. Upon looking, it was a transcribe grasped between fingers.

“It’s for you.” I would have asked your basic who, what, and why’s but the transcribe dropped and I had no choice but to catch it and shove it against my ear.

“Hey, Cobalt.” Danielle Sho said from the other said, voice slightly muffled. “Just called to see how you were doing, not that you can respond though. Just wanted to say sorry I wasn’t able to see you leave. I wish I could say that I was busy, but the truth is security was a little tense about what happened and I didn’t want to arise suspicion.” Makes sense. I gave a few chitters in response.

“Guess you can make noise,” she said before clearing her throat “you’ve been so quiet. Anyways, everything back home is normal, so that’s good. Hope you haven’t experienced too much troubles on your journey.”

Heart-ache was something I wasn’t used to feeling, but when Danielle Sho ended the call, I was left with people that I barely knew. Left alone with people who didn’t trust me, who only cared because they were told to care.

I didn’t think that Danielle Sho was faking, I felt more sincerity from Danielle than I did from Alex. Danielle wasn’t being forced to like me, wasn’t being forced to put up with me. She could have had me terminated, but she didn’t. To Alex, I felt like I was just a test subject. Just numbers on a report. He could smile at me, encourage me, it all still felt like a ruse. His acts felt fake, and they tore through me. They could tell people to treat me like a person, but I knew what I was and so did they. A monster, a bringer of mass destruction. How much could I blame them though?

“Hey you okay back there,” Silver’s head poked through the covering. “Oh.”

_What do you mean oh?_ Sitting up a little bit, I ran my hand over my face. It was wet, and something slick stuck to my hand. Tears.

“Didn’t know you could cry, if that’s what it is,” she muttered.

_Apparently._ Maybe it should’ve have scared me more that it was a luminescent white, capturing the stark amounts of light that snuck through the cover. Glowing in the dark. Just like the white eyes of a phantom.

“Wait hold on, typhon is crying? Steel look back and see!” Tungsten called out from the front seat.

“You don’t trust me? I can see with my own eyes —” Silver was cut off by Tungsten.

“And Steel is the closest I can get to seeing it with my own eyes. Since I’m busy driving.”

Steel’s square face and cold eyes met mine, he nodded before his face disappeared. A laugh echoed from the front, glad to see my misery brought them joy. Gritting my teeth, I turned to face the opposite direction.

Misery that I didn’t understand why I was feeling it.

Pop!

_What was that?_ No one answered my question, but I heard bodies scrambling and objects clanging. Muffled and hushed voices spoke, yet none of what I heard was an explanation. _What is going on!?_

“Shh! Stop talking or communicating telepathically. Whatever, just don’t do anything.”

Everything went quiet, except for a faint buzzing noise in the back of my mind. Despite the do-nothing order, I rubbed my temples. We had quite a bit of machinery so it didn’t matter if I tried to find whatever was making the noise and shut it off.

The crunch of gravel could be heard as booted feet landed and wandered around the car. It stopped and fiddled with something. I could hear through the truck but I couldn’t see through it. Peeking through the covers it was mountainous Steel checking out a flattened tire. Now we were getting somewhere. Maybe the buzzing was coming somewhere from the car. It would make sense, since we’d been going for what, thirty hours? Maybe more?

Golden grasslands that wavered in the wind still held true for the scenery. Nothing new to see. The buzzing got louder

_Maybe you should check out that buzzing noise, maybe there’s more wrong to the car than meets the eye._

“Buzzing noise? I don’t hear anything? But then again, I guess you can hear things better than I can. Care to check it out?”

_Sure, I guess._ Crawling from under my beige cover, I landed on the dusty gravel, rubbing the grit from my suit. It might have been easier to fit under the car if I dissolved into a pile of malleable tendrils, but they were already iffy about me as is. Part of me wished I had, as my human body squished under the warm mechanic parts of the car. _Nope nothing wrong, can’t even pin point the noise._

Steel scoffed as I emerged from the dark cover of the jeep, vigorously wiping off more rock dust.

“Whatever, just re-inflate the tires and we’ll be on our way.” Tungsten ordered, Steel beginning to pump life back into the tire. The tire was shredded, muddy, dusty, and partially lying flat on the ground. My stomach wrenched, tendrils tightening and squeezing. Something lay on the ground not far from the destroyed tire. It twitched just like I did.

“Watch out!” I yelled, it was croaky, and distorted like a phantom, but Steel flinched and backed away. Shredding through my uniform partially, I brought a sharpened tendril on it, a dead mimic exploding from the object. Throat still burning, and skin stinging, I turned to face the wide-eyed crew.

Everything was quiet the rest of the time. Car ride, campfire, not even Tungsten and Steel snickered about something in the secrecy of their tents.

I was ready for a cold night, not because a chilling breeze blew through camp and extinguished the fire. Instead because of the ice that hung in the air, the one that reminded that no matter how hard I tried, I was still an alien. They saw me as an equal, maybe even above them in sense of pure unadulterated strength. But they didn’t respect me, not in the way that I liked. Teasing was painful, but natural in human behavior. What hurt was the way that they did it, as if the only way they could bring me down to their level, as if they thought I was humbled and wouldn’t kill them. I saved Steel’s life and he looked at me like I spared his life, not like I saved it.

“Hey, just wanted to say you did a good thing. Steel could’ve died if you didn’t say anything, or stepped in. On behalf of Steel, thanks. Also work on the voice.”

_Gee, thanks for the advice._ The comment didn’t work when you were smiling like a child. Wished I could hear it from Steel himself though. Still, it was nice to hear it from someone.

“Go to sleep. We have another tough day of driving for sixteen hours; blood clots are a pain.”

_Didn’t peg you for humour,_ I communicated to him. Smiling in return, he turned away, his back to me. _Night, class clown._ Heard him snicker right before I shut my tired eyes, feeling them glue shut.

When I woke up, my eyes were shut tight. Vaguely, I could hear the scuffling crew members, and the faint crackle of burnt embers. They were up, but I wasn’t. Getting up was out of question, felt like I was under a pile of bricks.

“Hey typhon!” Tungsten yelled, and then an actual brick hit the tent. Or at least that’s what I hope hit the tent, and then hit the ground with a thud.

_Chill._ Still couldn’t get up, or really speak so that was response was the best I could do.

“Okay, if you’re going to just sit there at least talk to me. Static means nothing to me.” Shit. Tungsten heard static when I spoke, I wasn’t able to communicate. The thought of panicking came to mind, but I was too tired to panic. Mild worry it is.

“Static? Alex said that means Cobalt needs a psi hypo,” Gold said.

“You on first name basis with him?” The voice was overshadowed by the sound of clanks and general rumpling, right before I heard one final clank of metal. The psi hypo.

A hand unzipped and reached into my tent, dropping the case somewhere in my vicinity. Still with closed eyes, my hands felt around until they eventually bonked into the case. With far too much energy than it should have taken, I sat up and opened my eyes as to not blindly stick a needle into skin. Once the liquid had fully seeped into my veins, I left the tent.

_Okay, all good. Let’s go._

I was ready for another day of staring at the grasslands, then staring at the containers, and then at the grasslands. But then about halfway through the day, we stopped, and someone gasped. I immediately tore away the beige cover, hauling myself to a higher height.

_What’s going on!?_ Didn’t need to ask, beyond the glass I saw … a city encased in fog. Towering buildings touched the sky. Glass walls illuminated by a glowing sun, strung up with strands of golden coral.

“We’re here is what’s going on. Well almost, still an hour but basically here,” Tungsten explained.

“Which city is this? It could be dangerous if this city was recently taken over. Or is being taken over.”

“I don’t think it is, we’re more likely to find coral nodes in a dormant city,” Gold explained.

“I don’t see why Dr. Yu would doom us to searching a typhon infested city. This expedition needs a success.”

“I hope you’re right.” So, did I, the mimic scare was enough for me. This wasn’t the same as the sim.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memories of cities are not the same as stepping your own to feet into them. But then again, anything is new when it's been devastated by aliens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going to take a short hiatus from this story. I came up with an outline for this story, but quickly ditched it and without at least a skeleton I don't know where to go. So, I'm going to take a small break to just try to get to know the world better and maybe things will go a little smoother.

Behemoth pillars of concrete and steel only grew bigger we approached. As if it was still alive and bustling, I could feel rumbles in the ground stretching from the city.

Cutting winds blasted my face, but it was a small price to pay for a view beyond the coverage of the jeep.

Even closer than the reflective towers, were smaller structures. Houses. From what I could remember, most families resided in a neighbourhood like this. Late nights with nearby friends, evening walks to the park. These were experiences that neither I or Morgan had.

Roads that lay ahead of us displayed cavernous cracks. Even in less disturbed areas, small fissures with snakes of grass were plentiful. Carefully kept yards were now unkempt, houses ensnared by grass and leaves. A rising sun baked the ground below, the air lightly simmering.

It was no question as to what would have caused this city to be amounted to oddly statuesque ruins. Granted everything I’d been told.

What I did question was the severity of such a situation that humanity found themselves in. Many warnings were given to those who looked at the typhon and saw exploitation. And yet, I had only seen one typhon, one pure typhon. The typhon were killing machines, but they didn’t exactly have an air of intelligence. Swooping down to kill anything in sight without a thought of how their hosts could be used to maximize production. A formidable threat, but not a means of mass destruction.

“Gold, where’s the coral thing we need to scan?” Tungsten echoed from the front.

“The coral _node_ is near the downtown. We are forty-five minutes away, and approaching at a steady pace,”

“Thanks for the run down.”

Nodes existed in this desolate space. I knew already what this meant, and shivers rattled my spine. One aspect of severity that I did not question was the arrival of the apex. If typhon here had constructed nodes, then they were calling out still.

I rubbed my hands over my face, a sticky sheen coating my skin. Flicking it off proved to be ineffective as the strands clung together, and to my hands. Making matters worse, one of the crew ripped off the cover, exposing me to the sun.

“Come on, we’re travelling by foot for this last stretch,” Steel greeted me. He walked away, leaving me blinking for a moment before I landed on my feet and rushed over to them. They didn’t even flinch as wisps of black trailed behind me.

As we wandered, my attention fell to the group. Not much else to do when all around you was broken buildings. Particularly my attention fell to the way Steel stood up front, Tungsten close behind gripping a gun. Their gates were forceful and poised, steps confident. From their walk alone they were formidable. They seemed to have a tie between them, the way that Steel looked beyond into the unknown lands and Tungsten watched his back.

The twins were not as synonymous. Silver pranced, practically floating with each step. Her expression was light and airy, despite the seriousness of the world around her. Gold put his foot down hard, pebbles rattling with each step. He sprung into the air with a small skip. Foot down, skip, foot down, skip. Peppy. As if he was trying to be authoritative, but light and airy like his sister. His chest puffed out, and his arms hung back, a permanent smug look pasted on his face.

Hanging back at the end of the group in the same boat as me, Pyrite dragged his feet. He slouched, melting into the floor a little further with each step. Perhaps it was an illusion cast from his uneven lumbering. His blue eyes were cloudy and glossed over, lips drown down in a lazy frown.

This squad was a colourful one indeed.

A cough echoed from Steel in front, as he turned to face Gold. “So, where is this coral node?”

“Well, according to the mission’s transcribe it should be in the downtown area. We are approximately five kilometers from the coral node’s location.”

“Good then,” Steel responded, Gold shoving the transcribe back in his pocket.

“You know, we’re eventually going to have to talk about who has to actually scan the coral,” my gaze shot from the dull gray asphalt to Pyrite’s face. It was an interesting musing, but right nonetheless. Someone had to draw the short stick.

_I’ll do it._ If telepathy could stutter, it would have. Rather, I would have. My muscles even twitched as I sent the message.

Not one word was spoken to me, only slight nods in agreement. It was resolved. The only reason I volunteered is because I thought they’d bully me into it, since I was already part typhon. Who knows, maybe it would aid in the task. I could dream.

Mountains of rubble walled off city streets, forcing us to look around and take a new path. Tungsten often mumbling about the inconvenience.

But here, there was no rubble. Not one crumbled house, not even a tiny pebble. Yet there was still a block in the road, a hole. It spanned several meters, a cracked stone wall bordering it.

“Good god,” Silver muttered peering over the edge. Everyone rushed over, eyes widened and frantic as to what caused Silver to stumble and almost fall backwards. What caused her to hold her stomach and clench her mouth tight as it trembled.

“Good god, indeed.” Pyrite said, clenching his teeth.

Bodies lay in the hole, their skin dark and patchy hanging like cloth over their bones. Even in death they screamed, mouth agape. They formed structures in the corners, some scrambling over others to get a chance of escape, but they never did.

My body trembled as I let out a small cry, they were all looking at me now. Their gazes freezing my skin even more.

Mimics, every corpse was killed by mimics.

“Sacrifices, not something you see every day,” Tungsten said, turning away rubbing her arm.

“Indeed. I often wondered why they did it, there was no rhyme or reason to their victims,” Gold mused, his voice as emotionless as his slouched posture.

I didn’t want to press; I didn’t need to know. Those words already stuck under my skin like a blade. I didn’t need to know. I didn’t need to know.

_What happened here?_

“In the early days of the outbreak there was a group that sacrificed people. They were quite secretive, but widespread. Unfortunately, no one really knows their motives for anything, as everyone who got too close never really left.”

There could have been worse words that came from Gold’s mouth.

Small structures and buildings began to bleed into skyscrapers. A cold chill whistled through the city streets. I gulped, rubbing my skin even though I could not feel the harshness of the cold. Here, little light shone, blocked by metal giants.

Perhaps the slight chill that raised the hairs on my body was anticipation. My thoughts hummed and buzzed as I thought about the coral. The experience that could make my blood boil, hairs raise. Always in the company of anticipation was pure terror.

“We should be there in, ten minutes.” Gold chimed in.

“You’re not quite done up right,” Silver said tugging one of the strings on the suit so hard it made my skin burn.

_I don’t see why I have to wear a suit,_ I made sure to curl the thoughts sharply in their minds. Emphasizing how much I _didn’t_ need a suit.

Still, her hands moved up and down my physique. Yanking chords, tightening knots, re-doing buckles. Apparently, my job at adorning the suit was _too_ sloppy to be left alone. Silver took it on herself to fix my mistakes.

Upon finishing, she took a deep breath and tugged the suit collar a solemn look gracing her features. I huffed and pushed her hand away.

“There, that’s better,” she offered me a smile to which I returned a huff and a frown. Silver laughed and nudged my shoulder, spinning around towards a sitting Pyrite. He was tapping a metal case at spaced intervals, gaze cold and pointed at the ground. Barely registering quietly, but obviously bickering party of Tungsten and Gold.

Popping open the case, I cocked my head and swiveling my body to get a glance at whatever the case sheltered. Hands lightly shaking Silver grabbed something, and began to lift it out. It glinted in the small dots of light; a click sounded from the peculiar object. In the shadow of towers, rays of light emitted and illuminated the area. Tiny whirs sounded as the spot of light rotated and flickered. I could see it now, the psychoscope. Every wire, and every knob.

“You’re going to need this,” Silver said approaching me.

_No kidding._

Reaching out I yanked it out of her hands, receiving a yelp on her end. With the sim as my guide I slid the frigid metal over my face, skin lightly burning from the cold. With a flick of my hand, the eyepiece was down painting the world in blue.

“’It working okay?” Pyrite chimed in, my now cerulean gaze darting over to him as the psychoscope set to work. Homo sapiens, many weaknesses, little strengths and immunities.

_It sure is._

Silver shoved the suit’s helmet on, and returning with my own yelp. The helmet sealed immediately, all sounds muffling.

When hushed noises that hummed in my ears became non-existent, my skin began to crawl.

I didn’t need a mirror to feel ridiculous, the suit was baggy and dark. It wasn’t a pristine black leather; the suit was a stained dark brown fabric. The boots and gloves were leather, sealed with metal like your typical TranStar suit is. Even ignoring the constricting buckles and straps, the padded suit crushed me, every muscle fiber screaming. It felt like wearing a suit of armor encased in an old, pungent blanket.

As I bemused my appearance through darkened vision, Steel and Tungsten set up the winch above the gaping maw of a hole. Below the teeth of crooked asphalt was a shadowy abyss. One that stretched on forever.

The stuffy helmet blocked out the noise of each step I made. Heart thumping to rhythm of the footsteps I couldn’t hear.

After clipping my suit to winch, I sat down and scooched over to hover my legs in the hole. Before my mind could get lost in the darkness below me, I made one last scooch feeling the winch jerk.

I plummeted down, eyes grappling at the rows of rock illuminated by the psychoscope, failing to get a cohesive vision. My ribs felt like they would break from my rapidly pounding heart.

Pain shot through my skin as I tried to flail and move my limbs in the tight space, only slamming against the walls.

Lights flickered, and I hissed through the stinging pain. I was about to try and spread my limbs to catch myself, before my body jerked upwards and my stomach heaved. Breath coming out hitched and rapid.

“Sorry – static – We didn’t have a hand on the tether to slow your decent. According to our tracker you’re at a depth of 267 meters.”

_Great. Thanks._ I spat to no one, suspecting that telepathy wouldn’t reach them at this distance. Confirming my suspicions, no one responded to my quip.

Even though the air was still and stagnant, it felt like everything was still whooshing past me. Perhaps an illusion from the light bouncing of the tether as if I was on a bungee cord. Light bouncing turned into a slow descent. All of my limbs curled into my body, not wanting my limbs to dangle into the darkness.

Slow and steady, the rows of rock drifted upwards where darkness bled into light. The darkness enveloped me, curling around me and chilling my skin, feeling so far away from the heat.

Beneath my skin the tendrils let loose, disrupting the puffy suit that covered me. I had doubts whether I needed the suit or not, but I hoped that the tendrils wouldn’t tear right through the thick layers of padding, and thin layer of fabric. Just in case.

Eventually, the tunnel even began to … hum. Low and rumbling, the tunnel hummed. At first, I thought the noise came from my trembling body. Was the tunnel itself vibrating along to the humming? Casting my gaze down, the walls of the tunnel were strung with a glowing substance. Coral clung to the walls like a spiderweb.

“Approaching a depth of 560 meters,” Gold alerted me, now that the coral completely overtook the tunnel walls. Hushed whispering sounded along the humming, now louder. Shivers blazed down my spine, skin burning.

Never did I feel the need to cover my ears (not that I could through the helmet). I was prepared in this glorified climbing harness to block out pained screams. Screams that I was sure would leap from the black, but it remained a humble whisper.

I was grateful nonetheless. For the lack of screaming, and for slow descent.

The tunnel glowed a sickly beautiful yellow now. Numerous strands and wisps of coral lit the tunnel, only getting brighter the deeper I went.

My eyes searched for an impending coral node, but there was no evidence of the node. Only golden coral.

What I could see was an approaching dead end.

Feeling the air ignite my throat, I took in a deep breath, “stop!” I coughed and croaked into the mouthpiece; the familiar static of phantom speech audible.

Loud fumbles came from the other end, and a few gasps and curses.

“What’s the problem?” Gold addressed me.

“Dead end.”

“Dead end? The coral node should be down there,” Gold mused, almost whispering. Clearing his throat, he continued “alright, listen Cobalt. I don’t think Alex is wrong – “a laugh was heard on the other end before gold shushed them “- so just see if you can find a way around it. Mimic something if you have to.”

_Roger that._ They wouldn’t hear it, but I wasn’t speaking through my itching throat.

They dropped me onto the floor of the tunnel, and it sunk under my feet. Immediately I drew my feet back up, watching the ground sag and pulsate. A cold sweat coated my skin as it did so.

The ground drowned out most of the light that struck it, Except for a slimy outer layer that reflected the golden light. The surface was veiny and resembled closed flower petals. Typhon. Or at least it was made out of what typhon were made of. What I was made of.

Landing my feet back onto the squishy surface I kneeled down and tried to pry the ‘petals’ apart. They budged a little, stretching as I pulled then open, right before snapping back. With even more force I shoved my arms between them, only for them to slowly slide closed even against my arms. Before I could try again to pry and keep them apart, my knee gave way and slid through the center of the closed petals.

It pulsed and contracted, pulling me in before I could grip the rock and pull myself out.

This new tunnel was squishy, and tighter, almost like being forced through flesh. Heart beating faster as I got pulled deeper and deeper. As each passing meter meant a tighter passage.

The passage now squeezing me even tighter like a starved snake, I was readying myself to leverage the choking flesh. Well I was before being let go, viscerally propelling me through and out of itself.

Lessening my brash motions was a gel-like substance that suspended everything in whatever this place was. How I wished the strange substance was water, but all the signs pointed against it. Including a stench that managed to seep past the tight helmet, and existing stink of the suit.

Drawing my gaze was a golden center. Millions of webs condensed into a static orbit. orb of gold was suspended in the center, staring straight through me. The bundle of coral had amassed into a size larger than I.

Maneuvering myself through the thick, viscous liquid, I swam to it.

Every wall was an opaque billowy black, wrapping around the node like a cell. Everything encased me in, even the opening I had come through was now shut tight. No way to tell the entrance from the walls.

Firing up, the psychoscope’s lasers twitched rapidly as they comprehended the bizarre construct in direct reach of my fingers.

Everything in here was beautiful in an odd, twisted sense. This orb of coral shining, illuminating all but the shadowy layer surrounding everything. Every strand in the orb danced and wiggled, like excited worms.

“Scan complete,” the psychoscope’s mechanical voice alerted me.

“Good job. We’re going to pull you out now,” Gold said. I began to propel through the liquid. As much as my skin yearned to be free from the chafing suit, and feel the chill of the air, my hand reached out. Fingers spreading only to get a little closer to the node.

Within a moment I was zipping through the tunnel, body tearing through the exit to node’s castle. Body cascading upwards, watching the layers of rock zoom past me. Mind too far away to notice the way my stomach heaved.

At least until acid began to scorch my tongue, and inner cheeks.

_What’s the panic?!_ They could hear me now, beams of light from beyond reaching my eyes. Clamping them shut, eyes aching from the approaching glow.

“Typhon!” Tungsten yelled; my skin went cold before the air could even reach me. Solidifying my limbs.

As soon as the ground floor was within reach my hands shot out to grip it, hoisting myself onto the rough ground. Yanking the tether on my suit off, my legs dashed to catch up with the others. Pain seeping into my tense muscles. Everyone else scrambled over rubble, climbing towards a greater height.

A hushed buzzing reached my ears, but I batted it away like a fly.

_What are you doing? Why are we running? Don’t we have the gear to-_ my message was cut off as a loud screech echoed from behind me. Followed by the crushing and grinding of rocks, a sound the reverberated in my ears. Further following was cracks and crunches booming from below. Chunks of concrete, asphalt, and dirt burst into the air, splattering the ground.

The creature was huge! Far grander than a nightmare’s size. Mounds of rock and dirt infused into the mass of humanoid tendrils. _It_ gave another shriek before barreling toward us, destroying building, and crates of equipment in its wake.

Gripping the first thing above me, and launching myself upward, I Collapsed onto a low hanging balcony. Not before my muscles tensed up entirely, refusing to budge against my silent protests. Except for my incessantly beating heart.

There was no one in my sight, the warm bodies of humans bearing no presence. Only the hissing creature beside me, looming over me despite my elevated position. All I could was pray that it failed to notice me below its gargantuan head.

It stalked through the city street, down low on all fours. The buzzing was like static now, loud and constant. The creature reared to its massive height, head seeming minuscule at the distance. I was about turn over and crawl away, or maybe roll off the balcony and make a run for it. Didn’t have to do anything myself though, as the creature’s head split into several tendrils, a sickening yellow colour rising from within. It shot out at the building.

Shards of glass exploded from the impact, showering me like rain. The impact drained down, throwing me into the asphalt.

When my back hit the concrete all I could do was let out a howl, pain shooting through my nerves like bullets, lingering still. Tendrils tore through fabric as my human body dissolved into heap of black lumps and string.

Falling beside me was the creature, crouching low. Its head spanned roughly the length of our jeep, eye the size of my entire head. Its gaze was locked on me, limb reaching out and lifting me up. Our eyes met, now that we were face to face.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cobalt learns what's like to be a typhon. And the crew experiences a deadly loss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm back and I'll be trying to get regular updates out. I have a slightly better idea about where to take the story. I should be able to update once a month most times.

Opaque pools of white stared at me, as my body dangled from its grasp. It surveyed me from every angle, turning me around like a doll, chittering lightly. Then it stopped, holding me still.

Its head drifted closer to me, so close that its putrid smell flooded in my nose. I was face to face with its largest eyes, it swirled around inside the socket, like a bowl of vanilla pudding.

I am not entirely human, not entirely typhon, and it was fascinated with my predicament.

After setting me back down on the fading road, the typhon’s head jerked back to the crew, currently motionless with wide eyes. It roared, the sound quivering through the ground, shaking every organ in my body.

Limbs melting away, my body disappeared leaving only a chunk of rubble in its place. The next scream raked through my mind, and I reeled right and left to cease the pain. But to no avail, it remained!

Quickly returning to my typhon form, I scattered away, hoping that the many corners and alleys of the city would conceal me. They didn’t, because I didn’t even have the chance to turn one. A sea of yellow erupted in front of me.

Flying through the air, I tried to make sense of the sights that raced around me. Hitting the floor with a thud, I let out an alien scream of my own. From behind me I could feel it rearing to strike again. A faint yellow glow emanating from behind.

I curled up, ready to cry. I had failed Alex. At least the end will be quick. It should be.

Except it wasn’t, I heard a scream but it wasn’t from the typhon. It was undoubtedly, a human scream. Human! One filled with rage and determination. Following the human scream was a thundering screech. Followed by a familiar typhon screech.

The first death may not have been me, but I was sure to be next. Desperately I wanted to stay curled up in a warm ball, but I had to roll over ever so slightly to catch a glance at what was happening behind me.

It was Pyrite. Alive, running, and breathing.

A glow emitted from him, a deep sickly purple that engulfed him. This time he was as good as dead. But instead it was the that creature stumbled, nearly collapsing to the ground. Every speck of energy was sapped from the typhon, I knew because I could feel it in my gut. It felt sick, and for a second, I was too heavy to move.

There was no doubt in my mind. The purple suit, the reserved and distant demeanor, the psionic abilities. Pyrite had installed typhon neuromods. Apparently, Morgan’s sacrifice was worth it.

“Come on let’s go!” Pyrite called out to everyone, racing down the street. The others looked at each other once or twice, before jumping from their elevated stand points. Thankfully they did it just before the limb of the typhon could smash down on the already crumbling building.

_Even with the creature’s psi nullified, that doesn’t give us much of a chance!_

“I know!” Pyrite yelled at me; his lips curled upwards into a snarl, and his eyes narrowed, giving me a harsh glare. Signal received.

If only there was some way that _I_ could bide some time. No way I was going to have a face off though.

“Move!” There were so many voices that I couldn’t tell who uttered the phrase. With no time to react, a monstrous tendril smacked down in front of me, and I fell over once again onto the concrete. It wasn’t long before my back thudded against the ground, pain shooting into me. The scream that escaped from my throat hideously distorted.

The typhon lifted its arm, and threw me into a nearby building. This time when I fell onto the ground it was into a bed of glass. My back thudded against the ground, pain shooting into me. The scream that escaped from my throat hideously distorted.

Fire appeared to have seized every single one of my limbs, the terrible heat tightening my muscles. This time I could not scream, and no matter how much I tried my hand _could_ not move!

The faint, dull colours that I could manage to see faded away, and the world was dressed in the darkest blacks, and the most blinding whites.

Soon enough the fiery sensation left me, and I was left lying limp on the floor. Still unable to move, of course.

Black and white merged to together. Instead of forming shapes they danced in circles around me. They bled into each other, swirling and blending like paint, until a deep gray was formed. A gray that surrounded me.

Every sensation left me, leaving only the cold feeling of static.

_When shapes returned to my vision, all I could see were my booted feet walking through corridors. I knew that I was still away; still asleep. Only able to scream at myself as I realized where I was and where I was going. I was on Talos I, stepping into the aging psychotronics, where horrors lurked and lingered behind every wall._

_Locations flashed in front of me. Dimly lit hallways, sleeping containment cylinders, rooms empty of all except the uncanny demeanors of the staff._

_Then there it was. A large rectangular box, encased in a glass that could withstand almost any condition._

_It wasn’t empty, in there rested an individual adorned in a prison jumpsuit. Knives were being jammed into my skull as it clicked. Everything faded back to static only for a moment, and the Russian Prisoner remained, imprisoned in the box he would die in._

_The prisoner’s body shook as his gaze darted this way and that. There were people around me, both faces I knew, and some that I could not place. It was when I turned to Hans Kelstrup that the blades reached deeper, a blazing agony that lingered even when he faded from view._

_A no name scientist stood in front of the terminal, clearing their throat as they glanced sheepishly at me._

_“Permission to release, Morgan?” They asked._

_I didn’t think it could get any worse. A pain that taunted me about the fact I couldn’t do anything to it._

_No! don’t do it!_

_“Release.” My own voice said, cold and uncaring._

_An inky spider slithered out of the tube, stalking closer and closer, observing its prey. The pain bled away, as my mind grew numb to the incessant probing. The mimic lunged, latching onto the prisoner._

_My gut wrenched as screams echoed from the volunteer, as he choked and gasped on the tendril forced through his unwilling jaws. My mind tightening all the more._

_Emerging from each other, the four mimics separated. A gruesome birth. The lights flicked on, lights they couldn’t resist, and they crawled eagerly towards those beaming lights, too entranced to ignore them. They too were devoured, their bodies crushed, mangled and turned into purple cubes. My body ached for them as well._

_Then it stopped, my mind was let go and the bloodied blade slid out._

Threads of light faded away, as an inky blue flooded in, blocking it out. Not long after I woke my lungs stopped laboring over every breath, ceasing entirely, gathering dust in my abdomen. At first, I was frightened as the airlessness drew on, until the effects of asphyxiation seemed non-existent.

Typhon didn’t need to breathe. And as it appeared, neither did I. Or perhaps I just needed less. Just in case let in a tiny wisp of air.

Muscles that tightened with each inhale could now rest, still stinging from lingering pain. I couldn’t stay here forever, but found myself still unable to lift a finger.

“Hello! Anyone?” The voice called out, stopping to cough. I of course could not answer the call, without a face I could not communicate.

But I _could_ speak. “O-over here!” I choked out, my voice still distorted and crackly like a malfunctioning radio.

“Cobalt?” It was Gold’s that face appeared in the window, his eyes sunken and dark, mouth agape in surprise. My muscles loosened a little bit more, a familiar face was here. “Cobalt!” He said, his lips forming a grin as he scrambled through the broken glass, “Thank goodness I was able to find someone else,” he said, as his arm dangled and swayed; blood deeply crusted over a messy bandage on his forearm.

_Your arm… What happened?_

“When we were running away, it struck, and some of us were separated. I haven’t been able to find the others, so it’s just me. And you I guess…” Gold said, slowly lowering himself to the floor. “What’s the deal with you?”

_I-I don’t know, I can’t move…_

His hand lifted and he scratched his ear with his pinky, “you need a psi hypo.” Right. Static speech. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a psi hypo, so there’s not much I can do” He sighed, scooching closer to me.

So here we both were, lying in the dust, the freezing air piercing even my tough skin. Poor Gold, this must be nightmarish for him.

Gold’s eyes darted from me then to the wall, several times. “As fascinating as you are in your typhon form, do you think you might be able to switch into your human form?”

_I doubt it. Sorry._

“It’s no problem. It’s just dark.”

_I understand._

“But somehow … really warm. Inside my head, it hurts.” He began to rub his head, groaning lightly.

_Are you alright? What’s going on?_

“Just … my head.” Except, it wasn’t just his head. I watched in bewilderment as his skin started to go pale, some areas becoming as black as coal. It bloated and pulsed, and he sat unaware, literally scratching his head.

_Something’s wrong. You look like a corpse, one that got eaten by a mimic._ Although it wasn’t quite that bad.

“That … explains it.” He collapsed, his body thudding on the floor.

_Gold!_ I rolled over, standing on my knees I hovered over Gold’s body, shaking his body. But it was too late, his hair was patchy and eyes a lifeless black. _Gold! Wake up. Please._

No amount of shaking woke him up, it wasn’t until a few moments passed that I let myself believe that he was dead. Gold was dead. I fell back on the floor, my eyes refusing to leave his body.

But I could move now, I lifted my arm, twisting it and moving it. Next, I stood up, taking in the night time air. Where did the energy come from? I looked back to Gold.

There was no mimic that stole his nutrients. It didn’t quite look like that, his skin still had pigmentation, and eyes although dark were far from black. Though his teeth were decayed, and his hair patchy, no mimic shoved a tentacle down his throat.

January’s words rushed into my head, “an organism which is able to metabolize complex forms of consciousness.” 

I killed him; I _ate_ his consciousness.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew learn about the mysterious creature that lurks about the safe house. More importantly, they learned where it came from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was not posted a month after the last chapter, so rip.

The hallways of the safehouse were covered with enough grime to drive some mad. When the world had more or less ended, nobody had the time to care. However, there was one room in the safehouse that sported clean walls, and a shining table. The one room that was well-kempt: the conference room.

No one had any idea why they had it, let alone why it was kept the way it was. A hidden relic from an era of business meetings, and proper conduct. Much like children playing pretend, everyone pretended that everything was fine.

After an era of silence, voices echoed from outside the tall closed doors, decorated with a sleek wooden surface, and ornate carvings. With a screech the doors opened, and bodies filed in. Five people had come to sit in chairs around a long table, and all was silent.

Seated in a dimly lit room, and ignoring the growls of the shelter they now lived in, were Dayo Igwe, Danielle Sho, Mikhaila Ilyushin, Sarah Elazar, and Alex Yu. The last few survivors of Talos I.

“Alex, how long is ‘this supposed’ supply trip supposed to be?” Sarah Elazar was the first to speak. “We can’t have our own men gone too long. We’ve already lost so many!”

“Trust me Chief Elazar, I know what I’m doing.”

“Strong words for someone who caused the Talos I outbreak,” Sarah Elazar said leaning on the back of her chair.

Balling his fist, Alex Yu snapped “I didn’t cause it!” Alex was sitting on the opposite end of the table, far away from Sarah. He cleared his throat, and straightened a stack of papers, letting out a deep sigh.

“Not directly,” Mikhaila Ilyushin remarked, her gaze pointed away from the others and toward one of the pristine walls. No matter how many times everyone butted heads with Alex, they all knew they would be dead if it were not for him. Still, they were not quite sure why he went the lengths he did to help them. Mikhaila was especially bewildered, after she had lied to get a spot on Talos I. There did not appear to be any hard feelings.

Everyone was ready to ask, to get to the point of this meeting. Surely, Alex had a reason to call it. Why would he voluntarily choose to get teased?

Danielle Sho sat up from her seat. “I called the meeting.”

“What? It was you?”

“Yes. But, if it makes any of you happier, it is about Alex,” Danielle Sho sneered as she pulled out a case of papers that she had taken from the typhon labs. Clearing her throat, she passed out copies of the same paper. The project Cobalt file. This wouldn’t be easy for any of them to hear.

Alex glanced around the room frantically, mouth agape, before glaring at Danielle. “What the hell is this!”

Danielle turned her head to Alex and whispered “I couldn’t lie to them anymore.” She sat back down, ignoring her own copy of the file, while everyone else was rifling through the papers.

“Project Cobalt… I thought you said it was a lost cause, Dr. Yu?” Igwe said.

“Many things are a lost cause nowadays.”

“So, you did it? you implanted human neurons into a typhon? Did it work?” Mikhaila asked, leaning in closer.

“You should be asking whose neurons they used,” Danielle Sho said.

Mikhaila open up the folder once again, eyes gleaming the information, drifting for left to right. Eventually her eyes stopped, widening.

“You used Morgan’s neurons!”

Alex cleared his throat, tugging anxiously at the collar of his shirt. The thought of murdering Danielle was very prevalent in his mind.

“Well, well, well. Alex Yu’s done it again. No wonder there was a typhon presence in the safehouse a week ago.” Sarah Elazar said.

“Now. The question is how are we going to take care of it?” Sarah said, her face wrinkling into a frown with narrowed eyes.

“Take care of it? Cobalt is _not_ hostile. If you bothered to _actually_ it, you will find nothing on those records that indicates hostility. No one was harmed in the ‘incident’.”

“I’m not willing to take that chance.”

“Hey, let’s not be too hasty. I’ve met Cobalt, and what Alex says is true. If you can’t trust him, you can trust me,” Danielle Sho said, waving her hands as she spoke. There was one thing she agreed with Alex on: Cobalt was harmless.

“I don’t know how I feel about this. Morgan is dead, and now you’re telling me you brought her back? How?” Mikhaila spoke.

Alex swiftly retrieved a far more extensive, and detailed file from on the Cobalt project. He spread them evenly across the table, beginning to explain the process they used. Though he never told them why he did it, not the real reason anyway.

Everything started when Morgan died. Before Alex had a chance to mourn, he dove into work.

From Morgan’s corpse alone, he had enough of Morgan to re-build her. But when Alex looked out upon the typhon infested wastelands, he knew what he had to do. Cloning had been in their technological abilities for a long time, but it seemed futile while the apocalypse raged around them. But to create something new. Something fresh. The rules to create something new weren’t as strict.

It was a brutal process. They began by decimating Morgan’s body, in the pursuit of DNA, of memories. Alex would never forget each ache that came with each inch they destroyed. Whatever he found, he stored it, protecting it.

Soon enough, a typhon hybrid was created, most parts human, but alien enough. They fell short, there was not enough of Morgan to keep going. But to Alex, failure was not an option. In turn, he rampaged to find anything, anything at all that could bring this creature into fruition.

The first three hybrids failed to mature. Eventually, Alex learned he had to be careful with what he mixed and matched together. When the fourth hybrid was made, it matured with no setbacks. When it was ready, their small team put together a test. The mirror neurons needed to mature, and they need to know whether it could empathize, so they recreated the Talos I incident.

This project was on a much larger scale than they ever thought possible. To grow a new creature, to teach it virtually, and then to bridge the gap between typhon and human. To bridge the gap between heartless monster, and humanity would be no small feat. But it wouldn’t listen. It rebelled, killing ceaselessly, both typhon and human. There was no way they could allow it to roam free, or to even live.

Operators were created, to monitor it within the simulation. Writing off the failure of the first simulation as mere oversight, Alex continued without a second thought. This time it would turn out, only for the next ten hybrids to default to those same brutish ways. Even more sickeningly, some hybrids failed to mature, appearing as a mass of ink. Limbs stuck out in all directions, tentacles writhing. The pale human skin that covered them beat and bled.

Alex can recount one of the hybrids more than the other, because instead of a typhon form, it took on one more similar to Morgan. When the hybrid had nearly reached maturity, it shriveled and die. It was one of the few times he cried.

With each death, and failure they course corrected. The crew had improvised all the way up until lucky number thirteen matured, and miraculously passed the test. The only one to pass.

“My word Alex. You kept us out of all this?” Igwe exclaimed, gingerly taking another file from the table, eyes carefully reading the content.

Voices began to chime in from all around the table. Elazar cursed about the ramifications of making, let alone housing a typhon. Igwe exclaiming in confusion, and admiration. Mikhaila cried out about the immorality of it all, this kind of experimentation was something they left behind on Talos.

“I understand that you’re upset at Alex, and about this. You should be upset with Alex. But Cobalt is nice, not a threat.” Danielle Sho said.

As everyone was shouting, they all failed to noticed Mikhaila’s eyes clouding over for a moment. When they did notice, there was no confusion as to why. They all knew what Morgan _had_ meant to Mikhaila. After the outbreak, no one was ever sure where the two of them stood.

Danielle sat beside Mikhaila, and put her hand around her shoulder. “At the very least I can understand your concerns. And I certainly do not condone what Alex has done. But please, don’t blame Cobalt.” Danielle said, looking into Mikhaila’s eyes.

“Can’t blame Cobalt for existing,” Mikhaila murmured.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big reason for why I wrote this fic was because I wanted to explore the typhon species more. Such as how they would affect the world, what kinds of new species would be made with creatures on Earth. So I was really excited to write this chapter because it features a lot of that.

I don’t know how long I had walked; I suppose it didn’t matter. The entire time I trudged through the ruined city, I thought of Gold. His brunette hair, round face, and his eyes. Eyes that were a window into his knowledge-hungry brain. But these memories were all soured by his new, twisted form, that was pale, stiff, and dead. A normal face mangled, as I feasted on his consciousness.

At this point I was out of the city, where the sun bore coldly on my ripped suit and exposed skin. On my _masked_ tendrils. There was nothing but tall, swaying grass on all directions, except where the road stood. I had no destination, so my surroundings didn’t matter either.

The wind was soaring all around me, whipping past my face and whistling in my ears. Before it could sway me off my path, I stood still, taking a deep breath, letting all the oxygen leave my body. I didn’t need oxygen, but it felt good to do something _human_.

Luckily for me, I had done the most human thing one can do, be completely oblivious.

I knew something was off though. A sort of gut instinct that even humans had. and how very _human_ of me to ignore it.

As the wind hurled me backward with a powerful burst, something _gripped_ my shoulders, claws slipping around my shoulder. My body was lifted into the sky.

I flailed in the air, the road becoming a thinner line the higher I went. Eventually the ground blurred together from the tears that seeped from eyes, but I could _feel_ the wind growing more violent and colder, and _hear_ the powerful wing beats above me.

Then there was a wing beat. Oh god, I was flying. Or rather, was in the clutch of something that flew. There was no doubt that it was large, gargantuan, and very likely terrifying. Despite the situation, my mind went to things that went bump in the night, and everything that scared me as a child. I forced myself to look through my peripheral vision, and tendrils were all I could see. Typhon.

There was no more time to hide anymore, I had to look up if I wanted to survive in any way possible.

Above me at first seemed to be a black mass, blocking any light that dared come across it. It was a typhon for sure. Then I saw the mass of black that stretched beyond it, curved in the most perfect but peculiar way. I was snatched by a winged typhon!

Winged typhon did not exist! Well, at least not on Talos. _Oh god, oh god, oh god! SOMEONE help me! Anyone! Oh god please!_

The longer I yelled in my mind, the more I realized there wasn’t anything I could do about it; I had been singled out and caught off guard. Flailing wouldn’t help, because the wind already swayed me from side to side. Transmitting my thoughts was only using energy, the very little amounts of it I had. Still, I tried anything and everything.

Before I could lay my head down in defeat a whispering different from the wind flooded my ears. For the longest time, it was nothing but static.

_Safe. Won’t hurt you._

Those were words! But from where? The sentence repeated, again and again. I stopped fighting, looking back up to see a the typhon looking right at me, with its pointed face and glowing white eyes. The pointed aspect of its face seemed to be a harder, more solid material than the typhon tendrils, almost like a beak.

_What are you?_

_We are the same. I sensed you, saw you were in distress. Take you to a safe place._

Right. The collective conscience. Still didn’t ease the pain I felt in my abdomen, or my head. If anything, it made both pains worse. If typhon could get motion sickness, I had it.

I laid there for a while, contemplating. Eventually I ‘spoke’, swallowing whatever was rising in my throat first. _Where is the_ _safe place?_

It didn’t say anything, but I could feel something emanating from it. Stretching from its own tendrils into my own, traversing my inner body and into my brain, surrounded by walls as it were.

From the darkness, shapes emerged, like paint swathed on a canvas. Deep blues, blinding whites, glowing yellows, and consuming blacks. They all converged into a sharp point, jutting into the sky. It was a mountain. A mountain with many gaping holes, like swiss cheese.

Directing my gaze to the horizon, I could see tiny points on the edge, fading into the blue sky. The mountains were there, but nowhere near close.

Eventually my dangling body began to ache. It had been so long since my feet touched the ground. As my shoulders cried to be released from tight claws, I groaned. There was nothing better to do.

My captor stopped, letting the pathways of the wind lift it. My body swung forward for the last time when he stopped, hovering along with him. Its talons began to ease, removing themselves from my skin one, by one. My skin breathed, as my body fell from the sky.

_God, oh god!_

This was bad. I was going to die. I should have paid more attention. I should have looked behind me. I should have saved the squad. I should have saved Gold.

Far before I was supposed to collide with the ground, I collided onto a concrete mattress. Immediately I gripped my sides, rolling onto my back, feeling the impact resonate throughout my body. _Fuck!_

_I hope this is … more acceptable._

What should I say? What am I supposed to say? Thanks for making my pain worse? However, my eyelids weighed heavy, and every part of my body ached. I was too tired to care, and this was more acceptable than being in its clutch. When every layer of panic faded, I dug my hands deep into the typhon’s tendrils. The slippery yet solid texture causing me to grimace as I gripped onto the tendrils. At least it would keep myself from being whipped around by the violent winds.

Nothing else for me to do. Nothing at all.

_Cold, shiny sheets of metal sat in my lap, clanking against each other with each miniscule movement. My hands toyed with a boxy frame, just as rusty as the rest of this_ junk.

_When my eyes travelled to the walls, I knew instantly where I was: the simulation lab in the neuromod division! It was completely identical. Except for the painting of my – err – Morgan’s parents. Not to mention darker walls, and softer, artificial lighting. Therefore, it was Morgan’s suite on Talos I._

_A scrap piece of metal fell to the floor, the sound ringing in my ear, bringing me back from my musings. My hands reached down and picked it up, attaching it to the crude frame. Soon enough, it began to take shape, that of an operator._

_Its crimson exterior offset the deep metallic interior, its own guts breathing and moving in their own way as it buzzed to life._

_“December.”_

The world was coloured orange when I awoke, calm winds blowing over my skin. Clouds coloured a warm grey spread like a halo in the sky, floating. To a certain extent, I could remember my life from before – even the things I desperately hope to forget – and the knowledge that you should not look at the sun was common sense. The burning sensation one gets in their eye discouraged most from doing it. But in this body, that I inhabited, a glance at the sun was painless. Magical even. I could look directly into the dancing sun, imagining the flares that came off of it. It truly was magical. All of humanity sustained by natural fusion reactor. Who could blame humanity for worshiping the sun?

_Close._

A jolt rushed through my body, and I almost lost my footing, in which case I would be plummeting toward the surface. A sickening settled deeper into the bottom of my stomach. _Close to your home?_

_It could be called that._

_Care to elaborate?_ It _vibrated_ , the sensation quivering through each one of its tendrils, travelling down them like water through a pipe. Suddenly I was not so sure I wanted to know.

_It is more than home. It is us; it is where each separate part becomes whole._

_How close are we?_ Faintly, I could hear it chortle, cutting through the wind like a knife with its massive wings. Before I could rise to my knees, I saw it. The form slowly came into my vision, carefully overtaking the darkening sky. A mass of gray jutted into the sky, snow coating the tip. It was the mountain, and within it, a cavern. My muscles seized. When the form left, not only I could _see_ the mountain, but I could feel _them_ , all of them – fortunately, the typhon ‘home’ being so close to these mountains meant that the safe house was safe from it. _This … home. How long has it been here?_

_Too long._

Images of corral spiraling around desolate sky scrapers appeared, as well as the incessant screaming – thankfully it was never above a whisper – that came from the minds trapped within it. When the screaming became too much for my ears to handle, I flinched, stumbling. _Stop! Please!_ I could feel its confusion.

_Why?_

_Please._

They stopped, immediately, fading with each deep breath. _I’m sorry_ , was all I could manage say.

_Strange. I have not met another like you._

I hadn’t met any Typhon like this one either.

As soon as the mountain appeared to be right below them, the wind rushed upwards towards us as we descended. The pit in my stomach only managed to deepen, here we go. I was ready, jittery and scared, but ready. Until I got a closer look.

Coral was common place among this new age of humanity. But I had never seen _this_. Masses and strands of black swallowed the landscape. It tainted the large expanse of green, draining life from the land itself. The blackness wasn’t even shimmering like typhon tendrils did, it swallowed all light that hit it. This does not come as a total shock, typhon were always consuming, and always hungry.

 _Here._ The typhon glided lower, passing jutting cliffs until there were no more to pass, swooping into the cave.

Everything faded away into the dark, like a cascading gradient, until the first shimmer of gold caught my eyes. It clung to the edge of cave like cobwebs, wavering slightly. Somehow the deeper we went, the brighter it got, like the womb-like cave of the coral node. The typhon bird urged itself ever closer to the ceiling, before I could even think, my hand instinctively reached out to touch it. It felt like a cobweb too, except more non-existent, and cold; If ghosts existed, I imagined they would feel similar to the coral. It whispered unintelligible things, calming things, it did not scream at me this time. It always screamed at me.

I did not even have to stop to ask my new _friend_ how long this has been here, again. The thoughts traversed through my tendrils, into my veins, skipping along my nerves and into my cortex. Although I did not know its age in years, I did not need to. I _saw_ the environment change along with this tunnel, the amount of coral amassing on the walls over time. It was the first settlement.

Every answer to every question I ever had was here. Questions about humans, and typhon alike.

There were many typhon organisms here resting, heeding wisdom, bathing in the collective consciousness of their ‘peers’. They did not have names, but they didn’t need them. Who needed names when you were one?

 _Landing_. My friend spoke, gently lowering itself to a nearby cliff. It was … humid in here, vines tangling with the coral, a moss blanket covering the stone surface. Of course, the same mass of black tainted the plant life here as well.

My friend’s talons stretched out far, placing its feet on the ground, lettings the ground support its weight. I awkwardly crawled off of its back, traversing a majority of its body by simply falling to the ground. After brushing dust and bits of moss off my suit, I turned to my friend. _So, this is home, then?_

It nodded, its many eyes taking in the sights.

_Where are the other typhon?_

_Several places,_ my friend raised its wings, pointing to a nearby cavern wall, _A few there. Some there. And many are deeper in the caverns._

Before I could rattle questions off, my friend looked to the skies, wings unfurling. The first wing beat shoved me to the ground. It did not even stop to look down at me, turning away and soaring into the distant horizon.

Getting up to my feet, again, I treaded to the cliff’s peak. It was so far down, but the cavern only seemed to get brighter the deeper it went, the coral becoming vibrant and red with how tightly it was wound.

This is something every scientist alive would _kill_ to see. So, I was going to be the first. I stepped down, traversing rocks and walls until I stood face to face with the gaping mouth of the cavern.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Typhon were nothing like humans, not in the slightest. But that did not make them evil. Deciding who to side with is going to be harder than Cobalt thought. Should she be siding with anyone at all?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not 100% satisfied with this chapter, but it was good enough and I wanted to get something out.

It was a frenzy. If these were wolves, they would be tearing into the flesh of their prey, their chests heaving heavy from months of starvation they had endured. But these weren’t wolves, they were typhon. Deep, dark, emotionless typhon.

The lands had been barren for so long. The forests were brimming with life, just not earth life. Native plants were baring black spots, and every so slightly glimmering purple, as they were slowly assimilated. The typhon did not care about the plants, they were _hungry_ , and the plants were free of conscience.

The sun bore down heavy, working up a fierce sweat in my too human body. Thankfully the towering trees kept the rays at bay. I spent most of my time in the forest, ruminating, thinking. Thinking about everything that had … happened.

I was gazing at a particular plant, a bush, with spots of black beautifully dappling its leaves and branches. A bug crawled across those spotted branches, free from the creatures that ruled the earth. Typhon did not seem to care about bugs, so they were able to survive, becoming more typhon as they ate more of the plants.

Then I heard it. The snapping of a twig. I jerked to look behind me, and behind me, was a deer. There was a deer right in front me; I had never seen a deer! Not with these eyes, anyway. It was so big! And its legs, they looked so delicate. Its brown hide stood starkly from the blackening plants. I instinctively reached out my hand, much like a child would. Cooing to it softly, I cautiously stepped toward the deer, but it backed away from.

“Come on. I’m not a threat.” Even if I meant those words, they were not true. My harsh, staticky voice probably made it easier for the deer to read between the lines.

My words did not calm it, quite the opposite in fact. Stressed bleats echoed from its mouth as it reared up. I began to back away, but then it started thrashing. It fell to the floor, screaming as if it were injured. Then I heard a very familiar sound, a roar, and then a chorus of excited chitters.

A hoard of typhon raced past me.

The force that they moved with knocked me to the floor and I looked, bedraggled, as they held the deer down. I watched it struggle and cry as they tore into its conscience. No blood dribbled down their throat as they _killed it_.

I could do nothing but stare as they offered me a piece of the bounty. _No thanks,_ was all I had to say.

Typhon would much rather a human conscience, one that was rich with life and emotion. But humans had gone into hiding, and thankfully they were good enough not to be found. After months of starvation, they reluctantly settled with animals, rapidly disposing of everything they came across.

Even with the Typhon’s necromantical abilities, they hesitated to bring back most of the creatures they disposed of. There wasn’t enough to go around. Most of the weavers sat dormant. They waited for the Apex to come, to devour and send them away. Instead, they stood here, suffering.

Many animal carcasses were littered across the forest floor. When I explored the typhon caverns, they were fairly clean, the mass number of mimics kept it that way. But everywhere else was deemed not important, with energy rapidly dwindling there was no time to move every drained carcass. Eventually you get used to the smell of decay, used to the way it clawed at your throat.

I’m ashamed to say, it was my first taste of ‘food’. Like the rest of the Typhon, I too needed to eat, but there were no consciences to satisfy my typhon ‘hunger’. Both fortunately and not, I was part human and could eat physical bodies. If only they didn’t taste like blood, bugs, and fungi. Tearing apart the carcasses left behind, the stringy meat concealed all the things that got to it before I did. Feeling the goo that dribbled from the meat was almost the tipping point for me throwing up many times.

Nevertheless, I was still grateful I could get some form of nourishment.

If the typhon were ‘hungry’, perhaps, the hunger would eventually take the typhon away. I would rather not watch them suffer though. No one knows how long they had been hungry; they didn’t keep track of time like Humans did.

As both sides of this war grew decimated, I was not sure who to side with. Both were suffering, bathing in the harsh scarcity. But the typhon decidedly more so. The Typhon may have killed almost all of humanity, and could in no way reason. But, both humans and typhon destroyed the environment, just in a different way. Humans were toxic to each other, they would gladly fuck you up if it was to their benefit, case in point: the Talos I volunteers. Whereas, Typhon shared with each other, they came to each other’s aid. No one was left behind. Not even me.

Where did the scale tip?

Swinging my dangling legs, I pondered all that I had learned. The pine needles of the tree I sat in were uncomfortable, but I felt … safer, up here. I could see the brilliant colours of the sky as the sun sank into the horizon, reds, blues, oranges, lavenders. That was another reason to be up here. The typhon were too animalistic to notice this, humans were capable of recognizing the beauty their world had to offer.

Why couldn’t deciding be easy?

Everything out here looked like some abstract painting that would hang in Morgan’s home, her parents admiring its chaotic look. Streaks of black like paint on a canvas stretched across everything. Even the small flower I held in my fingers was dotted with black. When the typhon were done with this place, what would it look like?

Looking up to the sun, I noted that it was dipping lower and lower. I would need to find somewhere to hide soon.

The Typhon home was not safe enough for me.

Most of the typhon registered me as typhon enough that they didn’t bother me.

Searchers were another story. They did not possess the same intelligence that other typhon did. Typhon recognized each other as part of a bigger whole, and thought for their fellow beings, Searchers were pure animals. Searchers stalked, hunted and killed. Humans, threats, or defective typhon.

I unfortunately check two of those boxes. Being human, and being not wholly typhon, I am defective. I need to be killed, in their vacant eyes.

The sun was not far down that day, a few leagues before it began to dip below the hills. I was out amongst the forest, curious as to how the moonlight affected typhon infected plants. Maybe they glowed, maybe they blended into the dark forest, all I knew was I wanted to find out.

I was sitting by a bush, content to wait until the moon showed its face.

Then it pounced on me.

I felt it presence before it knocked me to the ground. I wanted to move, to get away, but I was held there, frozen in my stature, by the immense, unadulterated hatred that emanated from it. _No_ Typhon felt that strongly.

It growled deeply, something that lightly quaked the earth below me. It opened its _mouth_. I saw many sharp rows of teeth before I noticed that it was a mouth.

Before it could launch at me, and tear my flesh from my bones, I slashed it with a tendril. I was pushed back, knocked onto the ground in retaliation, but I got up quick enough to run away.

I stayed in a small hole for the next two days straight, watching as the Searchers filed out every night.

It had been a while since then, and I wasn’t keen to relive that experience, so finding shelter was crucial. Quickening my pace to a jog, I frantically glanced in every direction, looking for a burrow, a really tall tree, or even some conveniently placed boulders. So far, nada.

 _I’m running out of time. There’s_ nothing _here._

No, I could not be like this, that would ensure my doom. But with each passing second, I was closer to death. The searchers are probably already out now, watching, crawling through the brush. _There’s nothing here. I should just crawl up a tree and be really quiet._ Then again, I might fall asleep, and snore. Then they would leap up, and send me launching toward the ground. They would rip every one of my limbs off, and then tear out my organs. Nothing was to be left behind.

Behind me, I thought I could hear their raspy, growling breath, hot at my ankles. The heat, that awful, wet heat was all around me, no wind was that warm.

Stars were climbing above me now, gawking at the show that would be my demise.

_Crreakk!_

“Gahh!”

The ground hit me hard, stealing the breath from my lungs. I would have started to hyperventilate, if it weren’t for the trapdoor right beneath me, the one that tripped me up in the first place.

Scrambling to my knees, fumbling for the latch, I _rippe_ d it open. The noise from the door announcing to the entire forest that I was here, and vulnerable. Tip-toeing around the opening, I crawled into the hole, swiftly closing the door and disappearing into the engulfing black.

I plugged my nose, trying not to sneeze as the dust attacked my senses. Sleep was not likely to come for me, but the tunnel beckoned, and would give me something to focus on. Other than sharp, sharp teeth.

As advanced as the typhon were, their night vision was non-existent, like humans. Physically I was beyond humans, probably, but in the dark I was vulnerable, far more to humans than to typhon. Humans were creators, and they created weapons of mass destruction that could dispose of me so quickly here, in the dark. In this place where I could not see.

Although I would need to proceed with caution, following the tunnel was _something_ to do.

Above me I thought I could hear the pounding of feet, Searcher feet. Thank whatever gods might exist that I found this tunnel.

The weight of fatigue sat heavy upon me, pushing me down to the ground. It made the dirt floor beneath me appear as comfortable as any bed I had in my youth, disgustingly expensive and fancy as they were. Fuck it, I’ll sleep with the bugs tonight.

Without wasting time to sit and get comfy, I dropped to my knees, flopping onto the floor. This’ll do. This will do fine.

I was far more confused than I was terrified when I felt a wet sensation on my face. It kept going on, and on.

It was a tongue. From what abomination, I couldn’t guess. Until it yipped, _Holy shit_ , there was a dog here! How could it have possibly escaped the typhon?

The dog slammed itself into me, causing me to fall down as I was standing up. Its tail whapped against me. Whatever existence it had here was lonely. Every bone in its body protruded. The poor thing.

“You’re pretty lonely, huh?” I said, in my hoarse, developing voice. The dog whimpered, nuzzling into me. How desperate it must be, to seek comfort in its enemy. Half-enemy.

But I hadn’t had a friend in so long either. Not since – them.

Running my hand through its musty, matted fur I felt something. A collar. This poor animal, it was a pet, and had likely been without its humans for so long. Tears just about began to slip from my eyes, this poor thing. What would it have felt on the many days that its owners had been gone? What about the day where it realized its family would never return at all?

I choked on a sob, shoving my face into its dirty fur, hugging it close. Hopefully gentle enough as to not crack its bones. Its wet tongue ran over my face. I think it felt the same way I did. Drowning in the thought that they were no longer alone, for the first time in so long, there was someone else. Something other than the emotionless, black figures.

Or maybe, that was a rude sentiment? The typhon had never been mean to me, only uncaring…

The dog stumbled out of my grasp, yipping. I could hear its feet excitedly pounding on the ground. “What is it?” Then it barked, sending a jolt through me. It kept on barking, an annoying symphony that filled my ears. “Shush! The searchers might still be out!” I tried to whisper.

“Alright! Alright,” I said getting to my feet, or stumbling rather. The dog whined, getting quieter as the seconds passed. I reached forward expecting to find the dog, but there was nothing. My body jerked as it barked again.

“Did you want me to follow you?” It gave nothing but a whine in response. I stepped forward, praying something sharp didn’t find my feet.

The tunnel was longer than I expected, and smaller. I bumped into a roof, or a wall every few seconds. After the third time, I grew to accept the many bruises I would likely get.

Then something began to grow in the darkness, hashes and dashes of white. It lay across the floor like strips of tape. Brushing my fingers against it, I saw my fingers in the light. How long had I been in the dark for?

At least it was morning now.

I saw bands of the dog’s fur, as it began to scratch at something, the floor probably. The sound of the scratches echoed throughout the damp tunnel, filling my ears. I ambled forward, pushing my hand to the roof, against another trap door where the light shone through slim cracks. Slowly, as to avoid the screeching creak, I pushed it upwards, the light broadening, slicing through my eyes. Light, heat, it felt so good to feel it on my face. As soon as I pushed it all the way back, the dog leapt at me. I scrambled to push it away, its dirty, twisted claws dug into my skin. Then it was gone. I could only hear the jangling of its collar.

I had no choice but to open my eyes, and wait for the burning sensation to fade. When it did, in front of me was a black and white dog, its eyes tired and droopy. Even worse was its matted, grungy fur, so stained that the lighter parts were a disgusting yellow colour. _Good god, this poor thing_.

Climbing through the hole, I emerged into what appeared to be a cabin. How horror movie-esque.

Every object was in disarray, covered in a coat of dust. Shelves were broken, splinters of wood jutting from almost every surface. Glass littered the floor, precious items sat in many pieces. Whatever had happened here, was long ago.

“Is this where you live?” I muttered, the dog wagged its tail, then it scampered off into another room. “Wait for me.”

I stepped into the room. It was filled with the same amount and kind of clutter, but over in the corner was a mattress. The dog yipped, wagging its tail as it limped over, curling up on the mattress. It stared at me intensely, then glanced this way or that. I could see the whites of its eyes.

Scratching the top of its head, I sat down beside it. Gently petting through the tangles on its neck, I found the collar. The name on its tag was faded to the point where I couldn’t read it, except for two letters. written on the tag were ‘E’ and ‘D’. What could its name have been?

“Ed.” I whispered, resting my hand on its back. I’d never had a dog before. No time like the apocalypse, right?


End file.
